Intern Reflection 4: J.B. 8/9/16

J.B. was a 34 year old woman. She came in on one of my lasts days treating at AOMA. Her chief complaints were stress and insomnia. She reported owning a small soap making business, which she loved and had good success in, but the better the business went the more stress she felt. She also had two small children, 4 and 6. She felt her insomnia, as well as her other symptoms, such as irritability, low libido, alternating loose and constipated stools, stemmed from the stress.
     This was an interesting patient for me because it felt as if I was looking at myself in the future. My hope is to own my own small successful business and maybe have a kid or two. I also suffer from insomnia triggered especially by stress as well as all the other symptoms she reported. When I looked at her tongue it was like looking into the mirror.
    What I took away from this patient was a reminder of how vitally important self-care is. It's so easy for me to have sleepless night after sleepless night before I'll ever do anything about it. These things age you, they wear you down, they lead to an imbalance of systems and can take a great fulfilling life and career and turn them into a hardship. So right after she left the treatment room I went over to the White Crane and made myself some powder.