A Hard Landing (2009)
A 35 year-old woman fabric designer came into my office, very surprised by “the order that was everywhere.” Her father died at age 10 and she had married very young to a rather authoritarian man. Despite the disorder in their lives since the birth of their 4 children, whom she “could not completely control” to date, she considered herself, however, a very organized person.
She complained of bilateral tendinitis, over 4 months, on both forearms, which occurred after having dragged furniture into her house. The pain was located in a local point: wenliu (SI7) worsened by extending the hand and improved with local pressure and massage.
In the past month, the pain had begun to ascend to the arm, following the path of the meridian shouyangming /SI.
The patient presented with other conditions: chronic rhinorrea (mucus fluid draining from the nose), without triggering factors, a polyp on the vocal cords (hoarseness with a secondary effect preventing her from singing in the choir), and eventual episodes of urinary incontinence after one of her childbirths. She also referred to episodic laterocervical pain (the most recent crisis, 6 months ago, coincided with a new direction her career).
Her periods were very heavy, clotted, and in cycles of 35 days. Her medical history included hepatitis C and surgery for endometriosis at age 28.
This thin woman tended to be underestimated. Her expression reflected a constant worry, anxiety and irritability and frequent concerns compounded when she had “no control” over her environment. This state, interestingly, was often accompanied by hoarseness.
As a child, she frequently dreamt of flying. 5 years before, the death of her sister (who was a very important vital link), threw her into a terrible crisis: “for 2 days I collapsed completely, with a constant sensation of falling into an abyss.” This event forced her to “come down”, i.e. to become aware of things that are truly essential in life. Psychotherapy, which started then, helped her to build self-esteem and (with considerable effort on her part) allowed her to “begin to control her children.” Until then, she could not impose her authority in a balanced way, pivoting between overindulgence and untimely orders to try to contain them.
She generally felt cold, especially in the lower back and shoulders. She had a swollen tongue with a white fatty layer in the third posterior area (which, did however, contain a small depapillation), and the tip of the tongue was red and forked. Her pulse was superficial.
The only connection I could figure from the sudden and persistent bilateral pain in the path of the meridian of shouyangming/SI, and the overall context of the patient, is the fact that the pulling force moving the furniture, which should come from below (and it seems insufficient) and to compensate, resulted in an overuse of the muscles of the forearm. This suggests a weakness of zutaiyang/B, a meridian that circulates through the dorsal area of the body and controls the muscle structure. On this meridian also resonate both the male archetype and territorial organization, both of which seem to involve a conflict for her.
In reviewing the functional indications zutaiyang /B points, I found that 3 are compatible: weizhong B-40, fuyen B-41 and feiyang B-58. After assessing them individually I chose only to place a needle in feiyang B-58 (located in the calves).
My choice was based on the condition of it being the Luo-point (which favors the return of the spirit of the person’s “interior”), its indication for rhinorrhea and hoarseness (other symptoms of the patient), and the fact that the cervical strain she was feeling located along the Luo vessel that has its origin at this point. Moreover, according to George Souliè de Morant, toning feiyang B-58 has the effect of dispersing the meridian shouyangming/SI, where her brachial pain was located. Finally, there was an indication to this the point mentioned in a classical text that captivated me, as quoted below: “dreams of flying.” In fact, feiyang means “to ascend, rise into the air, to fly.”
The day after the treatment, the patient was “perfect in every way” (physically and mentally) … but all her symptoms reappeared after 24 hours.
Over the next 2 months, I repeated the same puncture (feiyang B-58) four times (usually exclusively), achieving the total disappearance of his tendinitis, her rhinitis and hoarseness (back to the choir!). She also explained that it was easier to maintain control in her home with her children … and her husband.
Reflecting on this story, this is my hypothesis: the death of her beloved sister, combined with the consequent lack of fundamental support she needed, forced this patient to stand on her own at the structural level. This was a case of an extreme situation experienced by a headstrong person, who was already structurally fragile, in which an event brutally shook her taiyang level: feiyang B-58 specifically. In my opinion, the subsequent impact (as a result of the physical effort made at home), especially in her arms on wenliu SI-7, the xi point of the meridian (which translates as “warm spill”) – was, in fact, merely a late arriving consequence of her meritorious “hard landing”.