I've been an RN for almost 20 years.

[freshwest]

82. I've had good experience with acupuncture, chiro and therapeutic massage. Some think such things are

Last edited Sun Jan 5, 2014, 11:33 PM - Edit history (1)

faith based or placebo. I never took that approach.

To me they are just physical therapy, that's all. I've had a lot of physical therapy and drugs given. So much so they damaged my liver, digestion, etc. They only worked on the symptoms, not the cause.

AFAIK, the kind of injuries I have with the pinched nerves cannot be alleviated by drugs. What works best for me is manipulating the body itself.

I can understand the hostility. My aunt, my father's sister died, because instead of seeing an MD, she went to a chiro and my dad was quite bitter about it and decried the quackery. This was over 50 years ago and she was only a few years older than he was.

She had heart disease and the chiro was trying to alleviate gall bladder pain, and she didn't want the surgery as it was back then, it was very rough. I look back on and know she made a huge mistake. She may have had both conditions, but it was the heart trouble that killed her quite abruptly.

My father on the other hand, went the conventional route with heart disease and died 3 years later after spending many thousands of dollars. Because he had a 'pre-existing condition,' he was unable to get insurance, no matter who much he could pay. The doctors had a solution that would save his life, but it was iffy and the cost was going to be astronomical. So he went home to die a few weeks before his 52nd birthday.

If the ACA had been law, he might have lived long enough to retire and I would not be an orphan. He was a believer in science and conventional medicine. His belief did not overcome the reality of the for profit medical business. He worked until the last month before he died, and said nothing. What was there to say, what could he change?

Too many Americans have faced that reality, and many of them on this board. Thus the arrogance and condescension to those not so well situated here, just doesn't sit good with me. Some should remember there is a human being with feelings reading these threads, and they may be hurt, or in my case, unmoved by their strait-laced opinions.

My answer to the complaints on those three kinds of treatments, is that it's a physical therapy -- nothing more and nothing less. I don't have to buy into some faith or healing philosophy to make use of it. I find therapeutic massage to be the most affective.

But I did get relief from a numb foot the doctors had given up on for 30 years. I'd had neurological events so they just wrote it off to that and said to live with the imbalance, etc.

But an acupuncturist hit the right nerve closer to the foot, so in just one session I could feel the sole of that foot, not lose my balance from a spinal injury and never had the problem again. That was 8 years ago.

Guess what?

It wasn't a case of 'the placebo effect' either. Because I had not mentioned the problem to them, I said my lower leg was cramped and painful, which it was, without mentioning the other.

It was a problem my MDs knew well, unable to get an reflex on that leg for 30 years. The acupuncturist hit the right nerve by accident and I've never had the problem since.

Why could this not have been part of my care, or investigated earlier, in my opinion, was competition for dollars and exclusivity.

I don't attempt to sell anyone on ideas for their ailments. The reason I tried the acupuncture - for something else - was because my health insurance company at that time covered chiropractic, acupuncture and therapeutic massage. The TM person it just so happened, was also studying acupuncture.

I had severe mobility problems, so much that it was almost impossible to get up, get down, walk, stand, etc. It was exhausting my concentration to have to literally detail every movement most people take for granted.

So the therapist recommended I go to the Bastyr to try to get some relief. That one brief session was more effective and cheaper than regular PT, from which I was not getting any help.

I'm glad you weighed in on this today with your training and experience.

It's aggravating to read the bashing of DUers desperate enough to seek alternatives. We have members who for no fault of their own, have fallen through the cracks, and are in places that some people have no clue about.

Insulting their attempts to get well does not work, in fact it's more likely to run good liberals off from DU, seeing they are in essence, being bashed for the crime of being poor and without health care. It is no more like a Democrat than cheap shots referring to the elderly as subsisting on cat food. My reply was that was not what they give people at food banks, and the poor and elderly are not stupid, just poor. It's easy to talk down to people, though.

In my case, after I lost my insurance, I didn't quality for any medical help, I just quit and tried to get better on my own and I didn't get better, but I could not afford to pay for doctors. The GOP loves to say that people can get medical care for free, just go to the ER and we know that is a callous, dismissive way of treating the poor and not true. We're not supposed to be throwing people 'under the bus' with this kind of talk.

Now I have insurance again this year and finally been to see doctors and specialists to catch up as many are, from lack of proper medical care. My health is getting better. It is a great thing to have access to the knowledge base of the medical profession.

But I will not put anyone down who tries these things out because they are poor. I've seen posts on DU that, in effect, bash people lacking resources for standard, conventional care. That's why I really support the ACA no matter what, better than nothing, which is just what a lot of sick people had.

I'm glad you got over that, being an RN is a tough job, mentally and at times physically. Your work is very necessary to many people.

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