Female patient in her early 50s, who works at a supermarket. She carries item in and out of the freezer all the time. She complained of shoulder and neck being very painful and heavy. Upon further examination, she had trouble sleeping, and was very difficult to sweat. All the food she ate would have a sour taste to it. When I was checking her abdomen, I found the area around her left rib was hurting and very sensitive to pressure. Her pulse was very deep.
Generally, when somebody said they feel heavy in certain area, it means water accumulation. Her pulse was also very deep, which also means a lot of water accumulation in the muscles. So,
after a few times of the usual acupuncture for her shoulder pain, she would be pain free when she left the clinic but came back with some pain the following week. So I gave her herbs to help her drain the excess water in her body. Since she has more pain on her left rib than right, it's more related to spleen than liver.
The formula I used Wu Ling San with Zhe Xie Tang and Chai Hu. She came back and told me her shoulder is way better, and surprisingly she was also sleeping better and able to have some normal sweating. After 2 weeks of this herbal formula, her rib was no longer painful and the food tasted normal again!