Monday, 28 September 2015

CASE STUDY (1) — CAN MOXIBUSTION BE SOME HELP OF CANCER PATIENTS’?

When we talk about cancer treatments, the majority people would think of operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy first. But, there are some people in China go for TCM, including Moxibustion, to treat cancers or reduce side effects from chemotherapy or radiotherapy as well. Especially, when either they can’t cope with the chemotherapy or radiotherapy or those standard treatments in western medicine can’t treat their conditions very well. 

Here is a story of a Chinese cancer patient’s.

This lady is 71 years old. She got diagnosed with ovarian cancer, stage 1c, some time in March, 2014. She accepted standard three big operations at one time in one of the biggest cancer hospitals in China. She had three sessions of chemotherapy between April and June. But, unfortunately, she had got various serious complications from the operation and the chemotherapy. She had to give up the treatments in western medicine. She has been taking Chinese herbal medicine and doing Moxibustion self-treatment ever since.

One of the three operations she has had is called: pelvic lymph nodes dissection. Some of the patients who have had this operation could have cysts formed in pelvic lymph vessels. Some of the cysts could be very small and could be absorbed as time goes on, some could be big and the doctors of western medicine would need to drain the fluid in the cysts for the patients. The cysts could cause a lot of symptoms for patients, such as, swellings, aches and pains in pelvic area and vulgar and groins, difficulties in urination and bowel movements, swellings in legs, etc.. If the cysts still continued growing, then an operation for removing the cysts would be done by the doctors of western medicine.

 This Chinese patient had a few cysts in lymph vessels beside both sides of the Iliac blood vessels. One of the cysts in her right side was very big and continued getting bigger and bigger. The specialist even said that it was very rare to see and she might need an operation to remove it if the fluid continued gathering there. The doctors drained the fluid in the cysts on both sides for her. According to the ultrasound scan result in June, the big cyst in her right side was turning into solid nodule without any obvious blood flow signal, the doctors told her that the cyst on her left side might be absorbed slowly and the right one would turn into solid mass and stay there for a long term.

By the end of June, the patient lost weight 5kg within 3 months, she sweated day and night, her appetite was very poor, hardly was she able to walk on her own. The reading of her haemoglobin was lower than the normal one. The oncologist decided not to continue any further chemotherapy on her until she can recover better from all the complications she had got. But, she still needed to have regular check ups, such as, blood tests, ultrasound scan, etc., once a month or every two months.

It seems that she only can rely on TCM, including moxibustion self-treatment, to extend her life after giving up the chemotherapy. Apart from taking Chinese herbal drinks everyday, she took my advice and did moxibustion self-treatment on some acupuncture points on her back, her tummy, her arms and legs once a day or once every other day. I said to her that the moxibustion treatment is good for the energy and blood flow and I had helped some clients have internal organ and tissues damage, fracture, bruises, etc. with it. The treatment should help her to recover faster and the cysts and the solid mass should get helped better when the local energy and blood flow can be promoted.

She had check ups twice since the end of June. Once In August, once in October. The blood tests results are good. The information below is the results of her two ultrasound scans’.

 August                                                                             October
Cyst in the left 
 One cystic nodule, size 4x2cm.                         No cyst or mass shown.
Cyst in the right
One solid mass, size 5x7cm.                               No cyst or mass shown.
A little cystic area. No blood flow signal.           

As we can see, the solid mass disappeared in two months!!! The Chinese doctors of western medicine had told her that the solid mass would be there for a long term. Moxibustion self-treatment played an important role in the healing of it. Chinese herbal drinks were important for the overall healing as well. 

The patient has put on weight 5kg in four months, the sweat has stopped. She can do more exercises outdoors on her own by then.

As far as we have known, that there are quite a number of cancer patients in China have chosenTCM treatments to help their conditions and extend their lives. They can survive with a good quality of life. Every cancer patient and his or her family would need to face a difficult decision to make: to go for chemotherapy / radiotherapy or not. Some cancer patients might want to try other things as some extra help along with taking chemotherapy / radiotherapy. 

Hope this patient’s story could give other cancer patients an idea of what might be worth to try in the future apart from standard treatments in western medicine. 

No matter western medicine or TCM, as long as it can extend cancer patients’ life, especially give them a good quality of life, would be worth to take into account.

Would like to see this story could inspire more cancer patients to try TCM, including moxibustion self-treatment, no matter they are on chemotherapy and/ or radiotherapy or not, and get good effects from it. 

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