Unrelenting Nausea

63 y.o. Female
Widowed

C.C. (in October '07):

digestion disorder - ph balance seems too acidic
insomnia
depression
Pain in hypochondria area, right side of body just below ribcage.
Nausea and acid taste in mouth
Digestion seems slow and uncomfortable
Plum pit qi stag
dry mouth

Husband died of cancer and she took care of him while he was sick. She has unresolved feelings about his death, like she is angry with him. She feels like she had to put her life on hold while she took care of him, feels resentment and anger.

Fogginess in head, and "dampness" in middle jiao

Short of breath
Hot and cold sensations

Tightness in diaphragm, difficult to turn, like a vice wraping around rib cage

Sleep:
Only gets around 4 hours/night
Difficulty falling asleep
Wakes up with a startle,
feels separate from body,
angry in dreams

Tinnitus - low pitch

Fibromyalgia - pain moves around

burning pain in shins and back of legs, low back

Nails have strong ridges, pale and dark nail beds

Low energy

Pulse: choppy, short and deep

Tongue: Red body, yellow greasy fur, black coat @ root, teethmarks and red sides.

Diagnosis: Liver qi stagnation with liver yang uprising

Rx: acu + xiao yao san one week, chai hu shu gan san the next week.

She started noticing improvements after her acupuncture treatments right away. Aprox. 1 month later started having better sleeps, and feeling quite good.

Tongue cleared up, and pulse improved up until abouut 1 month ago.

She called me about 3 weeks ago complaining of:
no appetite, nausea, depression, pain directly below sternum

I saw her on May 29 in severe state:
Depressed
bitter taste
constipation
intense pain directly below sternum, feels like hot bubbling liquid
refer to tongue picture in images section, Thick black greasy coat, red body...

I have prescribed a few different rx in the last couple weeks,

i.e. Dan Zhi Xiao Yao San
Zuo Jin wan + Long Dan Cao + Ban Xia

-no effect

then to get rid of nausea and purge bm I used a 2 dose rx of:
Da Huang, Ban Xia, Wu Zhu Yu and huang Lian

After this she had watery black BM, slight relief, but not for long.

Feeling of cold and heat especially in the morning.

Now she is on Xiao Chai Hu Tang 5g TID with what seems like no effect.... today is day 3 of this formula.

tongue coating has changed...see image in tongue #2

Her main complaint now is the nausea, which I can't seem to quell with herbs, any suggestions?

She has been to see the western docs throughout this...at first they told her her liver enzymes were slightly elevated and wanted to do more blood tests, which have all come back inconclusive. She is scheduled to see a gastro specialist next week. She is taking antacids and painkillers from western doc. (which also don't seem to be helping)