Patient : Female, 50 years old
First visit : 24 October, 2022
Main Problem : Red itchy face
Patient: ”Hi TCM Practitioner, my face is so itchy ya!”
Look at the face; it was such a reddish one. The face is described as face of “Guan Gong”.
Patient: “I feel my face is tightening and heaty as well.” If we see carefully, we can feel the outer layer of the skin has some minor peel off due to frequent scratching. Luckily, the itchy problem did not appear on the limbs, stomach or back of the body.
Slowly, she starts elaborating her problem. Occasionally, she has been experiencing the red itchy face. This time, she suspects the root cause of red itchy face is due to the food (prawn) or the skin care product.
Patient: “To fix the issue, I applied the essential oil of myrrh on the face. Quickly, the face turn red, but the itchiness reduced much better. Then I can sleep better in the night.”
When I ask further, we get to know that she has been coughing for a week as well as caught by red eye infections. Few weeks back, she has been taken the antibiotic due to the issue of itchiness at the lips. Now she feels that her lip is drying, thirsty mouth but drinking less water and more urination.
Sometimes wake up with numbness legs.
She has slight constipation; her bowel motion is at a regular two days once, the stool always hardening and hard to let out.
Patient has a sinking pulse with red tongue and white coating on the surface of the tongue. Based on these symptoms, her body is the category of cooling type, so her blood circulation is slowing down. We prescribed 3 days medicine for observation purpose.
2022Second visit on 2022.10.27 :
During the second visit, patient informed that the feeling of tightening face has reduced, the heaty also reduce too. She has stopped taking the antibiotic for the lips itchy. The drying lip has gone.
For past few nights, she keeps applying the essential oil of myrrh to reduce itchiness of the face. Besides, her bowel movement improved. She also visited beauty salon to have a face cleansing. Thinking to try the luck to get rid of the heatiness on the face and the itchiness as well.
She still wake up with numbness legs, she has a thirsty mouth but drinking less water and frequent urination too.
Today we can observe the dark red tongue with slightly white coating on the surface of the tongue. Her pulse still shows sinking.
We decided to prescribe medicines as well as acupuncture remedy.
2022Third visit on 2022.11.10 :
As calculate, the last visit was ten days ago.
We try to understand, due to the itchiness that affecting the sleep, she urged to seek help from a friend who is a TCM practitioner. He helped to fix her problem on the itchiness face. However, today she revisits our centre due to the new issue. Today her problem shifted to stomach and leg. As observed, her leg was swollen and looks like shining. Both the thighs and calf muscles are tightening. The surrounding muscles of the hollow at the back of the knee is too tight causing her unable to do squatting. Her stomach shows a big patching of red spot similar to measles, which also causing severe itchiness.
Feel cold for past three days. Her leg was itchy and causing to wake up in the midnight at about 3-4am.
She started to cut down the fried and heaty food. No dryness in the mouth, she drinks plenty of water. Urination is normal.
By diagnosing the tongue, we see dark red with white coating on top. The pulse is sinking and tightening.
Herbal medicines are prescribed and we do stomach acupuncture for her as the treatment.
2022Fourth visit on 2022.11.17:
Patient’s itchiness on the lip has gone. The numbness legs also alleviated.
As of today, the swollen leg has not been fixed. The tightening muscle has started to become softer so that she can squat down slowly. So there is a slight improvement. Her stomach shows a big patching of red spot similar to measles, which causing severe itchiness has not been fixed. In additional, she has tingling sensation on the surface of the stomach.
Due to the problem of itchiness, patient controls the diet strictly. She cut down fried food nowadays. She takes rice, bread, ginger and soup. No dryness in the mouth, she drinks plenty of water, about 1-2 litres per day. Urination is frequent.
By diagnosing the tongue, we see dark red tongue with white coating on top of it. The pulse is sinking and tightening.
Herbal medicines are prescribed and we do stomach and leg acupuncture for her as the treatment.
2022Fifth visit on 2022.11.24 :
Last night patient felt numbness on both cheeks. She encountered frequent cramps of the calf muscles in the past 2-3 days.
Other symptoms such as swollen leg and itchiness of the skin have not been mitigated yet.
By diagnosing the tongue, we see dark red tongue with white coating on top of it. The pulse is sinking and tightening.
Herbal medicines are prescribed and we do leg massage for her as the treatment.
2022Sixth visit on 2022.12.03 :
Previous Monday on 2022.11.28, patient caught the flu and detected as covid-19 patient. Her symptoms are very light as no fever and sore throat happened, only coughing. Her weight dropped for about 5kg after the detection of virus.
Her swollen legs have resolved. Now she is able to move around smoothly. The numbness on both side of the cheek has gone too. Cramp of the leg has stopped as well.
Today, she visits us to have the remedy for the cough. She has no nose block, no dry mouth and drink water regularly.
Sometimes, the issue of itchy skin will affect the sleeping quality.
By diagnosing the tongue, we see dark red tongue has fading gradually with normal red now, the white coating still covering the top of the tongue. The pulse is sinking and tightening.
Herbal medicines are prescribed and we do acupuncture for her as the treatment.
Case study analysis :
After the diagnosis, we learnt that the factor causing the reddish face and itchiness is due to the sensitive causes (which may be due to the food(prawn) or skin care product). In additional, she has a constipation issue that cause heaty inside the body. The heats have no way to expel, and it radiates to upper portion of the face, so causing her to have a reddish and itchy face. There is another reason, as observed, her eyes infection and having cough for a week besides the lip itchiness issue. She has been consuming the antibiotic pills for three weeks continuously. This situation has indicated us about her immunity system dropped for past few weeks. The issue of itchiness on the face has affecting her sleep seriously. Hence, she went to her friend who is also a TCM practitioner. After some treatments given, her itchy face issue fixed. However, the problem shifted to other location at stomach and legs. Her stomach showed a big patching of red spot similar to measles, which also causing severe itchiness. As observed, her legs were swollen and looks like shining. She still kept awakening in the midnight at 3-4am due to the itchy legs. By diagnosing the tongue, we seen dark red tongue meaning the heaty inside the body has not been alleviated. The pulse is sinking and tightening due to the blood circulation and lymph circulation slowing down.
After several visits and treatments given, the sickness has been cured.
As a summary, we have compiled some tips for a better recovery.
As we learnt that the root cause of the issue is due to food or skin care product. Since the issue is related to skin problem, we may relate it to blood circulation. Therefore, to fine tune the issue, we need tocontrol the diet strictly, especially the prohibitions for spicy and fried food. We need to precaution on the food thatcauses heaty for the blood, such as : roasted nuts, peanuts,sambal,deep fried batter, fried chicken, fried banana, durianetc. We also need to precaution on the food that causes itchiness of the body, such as : ginger, onion, leek, dried salted fish, pickles, beef, mutton, seafood, taro etc.
If we have the habit of constipation, to rectify the problem, firstly, we ought to have a regular meal for three meals per day. Hence, we will cultivate the regular bowel movement timing. We should take less food which is not easily digested. We take less meat, more vegetables and drink more water.
Nowadays the life styles for most people are always tension. Therefore, our immunity system will lower down. Hence, we ought to go outings at natural places, to have regular exercises as well. When we have a comfort and relaxing mind set, our immunity system will grow gradually.
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