I've been playing in this area lately. Do you toggle with one session SI+ and the next KI+. Or have you found it better to do (as Toby teaches) 3 x sessions at SI+ and then onto the 3 of KI+
I thought it was great to move old stuck blood constriction for my elderly patient before consolidating...SAAM just makes sense 😉
GREAT talk by the way...I really enjoyed the way you structured it...and also talked through what didn't work.
Regards
Ash
I've been playing in this area lately. Do you toggle with one session SI+ and the next KI+. Or have you found it better to do (as Toby teaches) 3 x sessions at SI+ and then onto the 3 of KI+
I do not have any rules for myself. On >75yo I find myself supplementing SI+ more than KD+. So many have crappy blood (a Sharon Weizenbaum term). I see varicosities along the leg, especially inner yin channels. I look at their skin, dark blotches, varicosities, color of feet, color of tongue....so often I cannot bring myself to supplement KD+ and cause further blood consolidation. Yes it is taught that this focuses in the lower warmer, but clinically it is systemic.
I did just supplement KD+ on a 91 year old the other day, but she did not have many of those typical blood stasis signs. I consider urination, energy, breathing, self-presentation and of course symmtery when supplementing KD+. I hope that helps. I'd love to hear other's experience. KW?
GREAT talk by the way...I really enjoyed the way you structured it...and also talked through what didn't work.
Thank you for that feedback. I am glad it was helpful for you.
I don't have any rules about this subject, except perhaps avoiding treating SI+ or K+ more than twice in a row, but that applies to all treatments with all patients. Like George, I try to evaluate my patient with fresh eyes at each treatment. A recent case comes to mind: A gorgeous well groomed 80 year old woman comes in with left eye pain and light sensitivity after cataract surgery 3 months ago. She is obsessed with being done wrong by her surgeon and can barely sleep or talk about anything else. These symptoms were devastating and she feels her life is falling apart because these symptoms interfere with reading which is a major joy for her. Medial heel varicosities 7+/10, lack of flesh of the medial heel and cavernous K3/lower leg Kidney channel 10/10. The grossest thing in the room was her obsession with being done wrong. The second GTITR was the lack of flesh in her lower leg Kidney channels. SI+ eliminated her eye pain but made her light sensitivity significantly worse. However, she was sleeping much better and had a lighter attitude about the whole situation at the next meeting. No longer taking it all so personally. The reaction was mixed but more beneficial than adverse.
Just gave her Liver+ as a second treatment. K+ will be on the table further down the road.
@kwisgirda The dark coolness of Liver+ sounds like a very beneficial quality to the case...especially with the light sensitivity symptoms
@ashwontok Her inwardly focused obsession initially discouraged me from using Liv+. I'm curious to see what happens with her. Not all light sensitivity is from SJ excess.
@kwisgirda that 'cavernous Kidney 3' . . . I see that fairly often!! Do you give that significant weight Kristin?
@schulman81 YES! It's on the Kidney channel. A very memorable case really highlighted the importance of this finding. In the early days of practicing Saam, a very handsome, very well dressed man came in complaining of dizziness. Model level good looks and good grooming. In his 40's. SI+ seemed like a no brainer but made him feel awful and he never returned. K3 was markedly cavernous. Can't remember what his medial heels looked like.
@kwisgirda ...the name kinda says it all...but could you elaborate on what a cavernous KI3 is 🙂 ...cavernous-palpable or needling sensation?
@ashwontok You're first instinct is correct but it never hurts to double check. Cavernous = like a (large/deep) cave
@kwisgirda those patients who 'never return' after one treatment (when you're deep in a process of 'figuring things out')>
As a newbie Saamster, I let the doctrine of treating pretty + petite + dizzy with SI+ distract me from the fact that he wasn't settling on the table. Besides the cavernous K3, he lacked Kidney swagger. His looks and grooming were kind of an empty shell with no signs that he was into himself. He just didn't buy that I could help him after making his symptoms worse.
The only bright side is that I learned so much from my mistake.
@kwisgirda 'Kidney Swagger' . . . ha . . . one for the Saam Dictionary! I too have seen the looks and grooming that were overlying an empty (Kidney -) shell . . . we are fundamentally self-regulating and compensating beings (consciously and unconsciously) . . . perhaps for example, in such a case, a SanJiao attention to detail and presentation was overseeing the presentation.
@schulman81 Yes- developmentally Kidney was abundant to create such symmetry and cultivate his wardrobe and grooming. And then some combination of SJ, P and Lung (resources) kept the grooming going. He was at his wit's end but in a downtrodden way, in contrast to the eye pain patient I mentioned above. She was at her wit's end but with entitled, full of herself vibe.
The vibe of each presentation is as important as the physical manifesations.
My patient definitely had her KI swagger (Love the phrase Daniel ::) going on! Interestingly, I have been treating her for xue/qi constriction in the arm yang (plus LU) channels (sore LHS elbow/shoulder). Chronically/constitutionally, she has family trauma and has woken every hour needing to pee...for 50-odd years (as far back as she can remember). Trauma is a funny one huh...I've been building rapport with the patient, building her up, and getting her in a better place to see if she would like to work through her trauma...with our sessions (I'm excited to use the SJ+/draining of knowledge that Dr Evan Mahoney talks of).
I was using SI+ for the elbow/shoulder pain...to help move stagnated blood/dynamic TaiYang movement. I would use the balance method to shift her pain...then SI+ to fortify the treatment.
The third treatment I decided to concentrate on KI+ to help consolidate/support and treat the trauma-related urination. She was a little put out that I didn't concentrate on her elbow/shoulder pain
The fourth treatment, she was very PC excess, passive-aggressive towards me. I put this down to my being a student-practitioner (last 6 months!!!)...and that I wasn't fixing her sore elbow/shoulder...when I asked her about the last treatment (KI+) ...she went on to tell me that she was getting 2 hours between urination at night (slight win!) ...though I'm starting to think...she is (somewhere/higher-self) ...a little dubious about having her trauma moved...as she has been using her mechanisms to cope for a long-long time. She alluded to, that she had made a decision that this may be her last treatment with me. Ok!. During this treatment, I adopted the balance method for her sore elbow/shoulder...once the pain had released, I once again used the KI+ points on her opposite side (balance needles still in) ...Once I placed the KI+ points, I then massaged deeply through her sore arm/shoulder, dispersing constriction, holding and dispersing ashi points...for the last 5 minutes...I found she responded really well to my massaging her SI10/11/12/13 area of her sore shoulder. I took this time to correlate her KI/SI relationship with her. I have heard a few of the speakers talk of the similarities with SAAM and balance method...so the KI/SI channel pairing was VERY interesting here!
...The patient was delighted ...and perplexed that her arm felt so amazingly free, that she had regained some range of motion she had not felt in 18 months.
She ran to make a booking with me next week! (can't wait to see how she is going!!)
I've been finding that often when I am dealing with deeper-constitutional...3/4 treatments of the same channel works well (before toggling). If it is more physical-conditional...I've had success toggling the channels more frequently (2 treatments of)...I think the body likes the more frequent variety!?
...I know I've heard Michael Max talk lots around this point however...just because I can see someone may need something...doesn't mean they are ready/want it! I'm seeing more and more with trauma...unless someone specifically wants us to work through it together...the mechanisms may be just the things the patient needs to function.
Being so constitutionally powerful...SAAM can cause significant effects...beautiful and confronting!
Toggling this way...and that!
"Not all light sensitivity is from SJ excess." What else could contribute to light sensitivity?
