Dysphagia 吞嚥困難
Male, 87, Reno, Nevada
Dysphagia
A call was received in a February and the first words I heard from the person on the other end of the line was, “My father is here.” He sounded a little excited, but I was pretty confused. I was thinking why he would tell me his father was here, before I realized it was Mark.
I had totally forgotten about it, because I did not think he was serious enough to fly his father, Donny, in from Reno, Nevada. Earlier in December, Mark and Ivette invited us to visit their house. After giving Ivette a free session of acupuncture for her low back pain, we sat down and chatted. Mark mentioned his father having trouble eating and drinking.
Donny was 87 years old. According to Mark, Donny had had a problem with his bowel movement due to diverticulitis, which eventually led to constipation. Due to the severity of the constipation, endoscopic removal was performed to remove food content in the stomach. The procedure, among many other things, might have caused dysphagia, because he started to have a problem swallowing ever since. He could not even swallow water. He felt there was something in the throat keeping the food or water from going down. However, MRI of the brain and X-ray of the throat did not show any sign of stroke or anything blocking in the throat. Eventually, Donny started to live on a feeding tube. A feeding tube was inserted in his stomach through the abdomen and formulas were fed through the tube. At the time of the conversation, he had been on the tube and in the care of his doctors for 11 months and of an acupuncturist in Nevada for 9 months.
I asked Mark, “ How long is you father going to stay?” Mark said, “He is going to be here for two weeks. Didn’t you said you guys needed two weeks?” I said, “Yes, two weeks.”
We had only two weeks to help Donny. I told Mark to bring his father to the office the same day after hours. Based on traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, there were a few underlying causes for his condition. So, we worked on those causes and his symptom (dysphagia) at the same time. Acupuncture was applied as the primary treatment and herbs as supplemental.
During his 1st visit, only acupuncture was performed, and Donny had 3 sips of water for the first time in about a year. During the 2nd session, in addition to acupuncture, he drank about 25 mL of herbal tea and about 10 mL of water. During the 3rd treatment, he drank a little apple juice and ate 1/3 cup of yogurt. During the 4th treatment, he drank a little apple juice and ate 1 cup of pudding. After the 5th treatment, he ate a piece of cookie and drank a cup of herbal tea. Six treatments later, … he went home and …for supper.
When Mark brought his father back and before we started the 7th treatment, he said, “Do you know what happened last night after the treatment?” I became worried whenever people said, “Do you know what happened after …?” I said nervously, “What happened?” He said, “Do you know last night, after the treatment, we went home, and my Dad ate scramble eggs and chicken noodle soup for supper?” I said, feeling relieved, “Wow, that’s great. That means Donny has been cured. It will be the last session today, just to secure the effect of the TCM treatment.” Later that night, Mark called and said Donny ate salmon and other foods for supper. Overall, Donny had 7 sessions of TCM treatments, with acupuncture and Chinese herbs, within 10 days. He began to eat his regular diet after the 6th treatment. I said to Donny, “Everything is fine now. After going back, you can ask your doctors to remove the feeding tube for you.”
After Donny flew back home, he called and said his doctor wouldn’t remove the feeding tube for him because they did not believe he had been cured. I suggested Donny to eat in front of the doctor. He said he did, but they still did not believe him. I told Donny, “The only thing we could do is to keep eating.” Donny kept eating for about a month before they finally removed the feeding tube.
A call was received in a February and the first words I heard from the person on the other end of the line was, “My father is here.” He sounded a little excited, but I was pretty confused. I was thinking why he would tell me his father was here, before I realized it was Mark.
I had totally forgotten about it, because I did not think he was serious enough to fly his father, Donny, in from Reno, Nevada. Earlier in December, Mark and Ivette invited us to visit their house. After giving Ivette a free session of acupuncture for her low back pain, we sat down and chatted. Mark mentioned his father having trouble eating and drinking.
Donny was 87 years old. According to Mark, Donny had had a problem with his bowel movement due to diverticulitis, which eventually led to constipation. Due to the severity of the constipation, endoscopic removal was performed to remove food content in the stomach. The procedure, among many other things, might have caused dysphagia, because he started to have a problem swallowing ever since. He could not even swallow water. He felt there was something in the throat keeping the food or water from going down. However, MRI of the brain and X-ray of the throat did not show any sign of stroke or anything blocking in the throat. Eventually, Donny started to live on a feeding tube. A feeding tube was inserted in his stomach through the abdomen and formulas were fed through the tube. At the time of the conversation, he had been on the tube and in the care of his doctors for 11 months and of an acupuncturist in Nevada for 9 months.
I asked Mark, “ How long is you father going to stay?” Mark said, “He is going to be here for two weeks. Didn’t you said you guys needed two weeks?” I said, “Yes, two weeks.”
We had only two weeks to help Donny. I told Mark to bring his father to the office the same day after hours. Based on traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory, there were a few underlying causes for his condition. So, we worked on those causes and his symptom (dysphagia) at the same time. Acupuncture was applied as the primary treatment and herbs as supplemental.
During his 1st visit, only acupuncture was performed, and Donny had 3 sips of water for the first time in about a year. During the 2nd session, in addition to acupuncture, he drank about 25 mL of herbal tea and about 10 mL of water. During the 3rd treatment, he drank a little apple juice and ate 1/3 cup of yogurt. During the 4th treatment, he drank a little apple juice and ate 1 cup of pudding. After the 5th treatment, he ate a piece of cookie and drank a cup of herbal tea. Six treatments later, … he went home and …for supper.
When Mark brought his father back and before we started the 7th treatment, he said, “Do you know what happened last night after the treatment?” I became worried whenever people said, “Do you know what happened after …?” I said nervously, “What happened?” He said, “Do you know last night, after the treatment, we went home, and my Dad ate scramble eggs and chicken noodle soup for supper?” I said, feeling relieved, “Wow, that’s great. That means Donny has been cured. It will be the last session today, just to secure the effect of the TCM treatment.” Later that night, Mark called and said Donny ate salmon and other foods for supper. Overall, Donny had 7 sessions of TCM treatments, with acupuncture and Chinese herbs, within 10 days. He began to eat his regular diet after the 6th treatment. I said to Donny, “Everything is fine now. After going back, you can ask your doctors to remove the feeding tube for you.”
After Donny flew back home, he called and said his doctor wouldn’t remove the feeding tube for him because they did not believe he had been cured. I suggested Donny to eat in front of the doctor. He said he did, but they still did not believe him. I told Donny, “The only thing we could do is to keep eating.” Donny kept eating for about a month before they finally removed the feeding tube.
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