Yin Fire Scenarios (Li Dong-Yuan; Li Gao)

I've been on a self-constructed formula for one month now. I'm at a point where I would appreciate some guidance in regards to recent changes in my health. For three years going, I have had regular liver-spleen disharmony (wood invading earth) with marked spleen deficiency and liver stagnation. For quite some time I've had diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, and many other bowel issues (leaky gut). I have from time to time moderate blood deficiency, with simultaneous heat and cold. My liver has a history of assailing the heart spirit (I've had some pretty scary cardiac issues in the past, but have since calmed down significantly). My disease is long past the invasion and assimilation phase; it's developed into a knotty, repurcussive, stubborn condition--an Yin fire scenario. I've experienced a huge variety of ailments and symptoms since autoimmune onset. For the sake of efficiency I'll mention the symptoms experienced in relation to the time periods I discuss later (scroll down). I'm on a strict diet regimen of *only* select vegetables, fruits, cooking oils, meats, fish, and fermented products. I eat absolutely no processed foods, grains (including rice), or added sugars (beyond field honey). I cook every meal, peel the skin of every fruit and vegetable, eat only grass-fed meats, and organic produce. I ferment my own coconut water kefir, yogurt, and sauerkraut. I'm basically a homesteader! One month ago I began a self-constructed decoction targeted to (1) supplement and boost the spleen, clear heat and drain fire--downbear turbid; upbear clear; (2) release exterior (anti-Gu: I have moderate-severe gut dysbiosis), dredge the liver; (3) dry dampness, resolve phlegm; (4) rectify the qi (primarily yang), counter ascending yang (assailing my lungs--I have thyroid disease so this entails a lot of inflammation, constriction, moodiness, heat, neurological dysfunction), nourish blood, warm the center, and calm the shen (anxiety)--respectively. The following prescription did the trick, with items that varied often indicated with a ** (for the first 3 weeks, keep in mind this has varied slightly over this period from day-to-day and I've kept records of these variations and my symptoms): Tier ONE (supplement spleen, clear heat, etc.): Bai Zhu (Chao) 9 g Yi YI Ren 12 g Dang Shen 12 g Jiang Huang 9 g Huang Qin 6 g** Mu Xiang 3 g** Gan Cao (Zhi) 3 g Tier TWO (release exterior--kill Gu, dredge liver): Chai Hu 9 g Bai Shao 9 g** Ge Gen 6 g** Qing Hao 6 g Fei Zi 9 g** Wu Mei 9 g Shi Jun Zi 12 g Bing Lang 12 g Huang Lian 9 g Zi Su Ye 9 g Niu Zhi (You) 9 drops Olive Leaf Extract 1 cap Tier THREE (dry dampness, resolve phlegm): Zhi Shi 9 g** Chen Pi 9 g** Cang Zhu 4.5 g** Tier FOUR (everything else): Gan Jiang 6 g** Ding Xiang 3 g Bo He 3 g (On a few occasions I used Ban Xia, Da Huang, and Mu Xiang circumstantially). During the first day of my formula I had a Herxheimer reaction. This subsided within a few hours, and the next following few days my abdominal distention (lower epigastrium/lower burner) or "drum belly" was greatly reduced, and inflammation almost null. However, from then on I have been having most of my issues resolved with the exception of this drum belly and mainly very excessive and foul-smelling flatulence. So I continued on with the regimen until about a week ago (3 weeks into treatment) I was feeling well; diarrhea/loose stools had become solid and regular each day, epigastrium signs (difficulty breathing, palpitations, fullness) were resolved, and liver yang rising stopped happening (sinus, thyroid, swelling, anger) all improved. Checking my pulses, I discovered that liver was now smooth and untaught while heart had greatly reduced to normal. However, for the past week the epigastric and abdominal issues are resurfacing. Now the liver pulse is deficient and kidney yang is slightly wiry. BPM is still moderate--so no immediate signs of internal cold and/or heat. But my instinct tells me I might have squelched the fire too well and possibly extinguished ministerial fire via all the many cold, bitter medicinals. It has been 30 days now on the particularly anti-fungal, anti-parasitic, anti-pathogenic herbs (Qing Hao, Fei Zi, Wu Mei, Shi Jun Zi, Bing Lang, Huang Lian, Zi Su Ye, Oregano oil, and Olive leaf extract). According to the functional medicine publication by Susan Blum (The Immune System Recovery Plan) she suggests taking organic compounds (almost all contained within this list of herbs) for a minimum of 2 weeks for mild dysbiosis, 1 month for moderate-severe, and 2 months maximum if gut issues are stubborn. Question is: are gut issues still stubborn? Has the pathogenic facet of my illness(es) been effectively dealt with or am I now dealing with a damp-cold problem? How can I resolve this phlegm in the lower burner so that I don't completely dry out the rest of my body? Or could this phlegm simply be qi and/or food stagnation? If anyone is familiar with Yin-fire or Gu theories (Bob Flaws) please fill me in what I haven't yet connected. How can the above aforementioned patterns be distinguished within these two theoretical contexts? As I'm going to stop taking the bitter, cold anti-Gu anti-pathogenic medicinals I'm wondering just what ratio of warm/cool my revised formula should now exhibit.