Palpation in KM discerns imbalance between Eum and Yang, intestinal disorders, and more.

I was subject to examination by palpation in the middle of April this year. A senior student who had much experience in diagnosis and treatment through 2 years of weekly KM volunteer work gave the examination to pass on the learning experience to me and my peers.

The process started by having me expose my trunk. Then my senior warmed his hands and started the palpation from just below the xyphoid process. As I felt a light touch, he explained, "The first thing to check is the warmth and tension of the skin. Now the skin is quite warm but a little loose." The warmth combined with looseness pointed to many possibilities without additional information, but the two pointed to different directions and indicated a mixed condition.

The touching hand then pressed deeper into the skin. He didn't press down vertically with the tip of his fingers, but instead used the ball of the fingers and pressed downward like a flat surface coming down.

Looking at my face, he went on to say, “Pay attention to the patient's expressions for any signs of pain or discomfort. And focus on the touching fingers for sensations like tremors or changes in tension, and any fullness underneath while slowly pressing deeper.”

There was no pain on my part, but I gave way to a continuous fit of giggles. He stopped, lifted my hand and moved my hand on the palpation point, and pressed down on the hands. The giggles simmered down.

"Put the patient's own hands on the spot if they are too ticklish." This, he said, dulls the sensation under the fingers, but is useful in some cases such as extremely ticklish patients(which include most children), or in examining regions where the patient may take offense when the doctor presses down.

The examination went from the xyphoid process to the border of the epigastric and umbilical region, then to the lateral abdominal regions, umbilicus, and finally the pubic region. He checked for the details mentioned above, and disorders of the organs under each region.

I felt no pain or discomfort except tickles. But my senior pressed down just below my umbilicus, stopped, and motioned for us to touch that region. A short linear area starting from my umbilicus had noticeably reduced tension from the areas surrounding it.

He asked me if I had drunken recently. I had. He nodded, and explained that the cleft was an indication of deficient Spleen Eum. Judging by the level of the tension, the deficiency was a light one. "Keep the alcohol down" he advised.

The process took about 10 minutes. It could have been embarrassing, but my senior did everything to prevent me from feeling uncomfortable, both physically and mentally.

He said that the palpation results seemed to indicate slight Eum deficiency, but emphasized that, "palpation is not something that can stand alone in diagnosis. It should be considered along with signs found in other diagnoses."

Palpation can check a part of the pattern which forms the body. But it is a powerful tool for checking disorders of the organs, and provides another scope for observing the bodyscape.