In 2019, a 62-year old female had been coming in for facial acupuncture and various aches and pains, as well as managing blood pressure, which is now stable.

On 5/20/19, she stated a feeling of constriction in her throat. She has trouble swallowing occasionally and feels anxious when this occurs. Sometimes this feeling wakes her up at night. The constriction gets worse when she is feeling depressed or stressed.

We decided to focus on some key core complaints: Depression and anxiety since undergoing a kidney transplant to her husband in 11/19/2014. Shortly afterwards, she trained for a marathon and exhausted her reserves. She never fully recovered and since then, she’s felt fatigued, weak, anxious, sad with some feelings of anger. Patient cries easily during intake.

Schedule of treatments as such:
5/20/19: Throat constriction level very high accompanied by gagging, aversion to food and nausea. Difficulty breathing.
5/31/19
6/10/19
6/17/19
6/24/19: Throat constriction level 7/10. Fluctuates throughout the day now.
7/1/19: Throat constriction level 4/10. At this point, I asked her to be more aggressive with her treatments, 2-3x/week for the next month to get more improvement.
7/3/19: Constriction level down to 4/10.

Written by: Zen Tuan, Licensed Acupuncturist at Healing with Zen