Acupuncture and Moxabustion used for Poison Oak Rash

Chief Complaint: persistent poison oak rash
Western Diagnosis: poison oak
Medical History: 45 year old male recently emerged from a nasty divorce. Presenting with a poison oak rash that would not go away despite western medical treatment. The patient had taken oral steroids to no avail and the next step was injected steroids. He was coming to acupuncture to avoid this step.
Questioning exam: Patient was tense and fearful, had a dark blue/black hue visible at his temples, smelled putrid and had a groan quality to his voice.
Pulse exam: The patient’s had a wiry agitated quality across the board.
Treatment Principle: Drain aggressive energy, followed with moxa and tonification of the source points in his causative factor, the water element.
Point Prescription: To drain aggressive energy:
BL 13, 14, 18, 20, 23- inserted not to point depth but just beneath the surface of the skin, even technique, right to left. Three test needles added in non points in the regions of the upper thoracic, mid. thoracic, and upper lumbar respectively. There was a about 40 minutes of erythema appearing around the BL 13, 18, and 23 needles, beyond the simple skin reaction which cleared after about 5 minutes on the test needles. Once erythema cleared, all needles removed, and BL 15 inserted, same technique, along with a new upper thoracic test needle. (new spot). Bl 15 exhibited no erythema, and was removed after five minutes, along with its test needle.
Sources in CF:
IV 3, 3 moxa and tonified
III 64, 3 moxa and tonified
Lifestyle Prescription: Patient encouraged to drink water.
Results: Pulses became fuller and smoother, lost the agitated quality. III and IV stayed lower relative to the other pulses. Color and odor less pronounced. Patient relaxed, quiet.
Returned in a cheerful state the following week reporting that the rash had completely disappeared. Moreover he felt better overall than he had in a long time, and more ‘himself’.
Synopsis: Draining aggressive energy allowed the patient to release heat and stagnant energy that had accumulated primarily in the lung, liver and kidney meridians, as exhibited by the clearing erythema. Moxa and tonification of the sources in III, IV supported the element where this patient has a underlying constitutional vulnerability, as exhibited by his odor, color, sound and emotion.