April, 2008

Please allow me to introduce myself, as this is my first ever blog on CAN. My name is Larry and I am a new practitioner out of Arizona. I was schooled back east at the Tri-State College of Acupuncture and graduated in 2007. I read "The Remedy" early in the last semester of school and felt that it addressed the bulk of my concerns as a student regarding patient accessability to acupuncture and East Asian medicine in general. On one hand I was set to graduate, having a very successful student career and enjoying the student clinic. On the other, I was casually indifferent to the whole thing and didn't exactly know why. "The boards? No, I haven't scheduled them yet?". "Business cards? Wow, you're really thinking ahead!". When I read the Remedy, I was excited for the first time since year three began, feeling a sense of purpose that had been missing up to that point.

Dental hygienists in Alaska helping people, saving taxpayer dollars, and the ADA frowns.....calling it a public health issue while dentists in the public sector say it's nothing more than turf protectionism:

Full Story. 

(New York Times) 

18 Veterans are committing suicide every day according to this story in the NYT.

Community acupuncture clinics can save lives now. The challenge is connecting with the Vets, which means doing outreach in our community. There is a lot more to be said on this topic, but clear thinking and rest is needed before action. I needed to say at least this much before going horizontal for the night. 

...little did we know the ways that our name would get out there. Here is an example of how community acupuncture can spread into the local scene. Nice work Matt.

From a local weekly - click here for link

So I have an interesting story to pass on to the CA folks out there.  It is a conversation I had with a doctoral student here at my acupuncture school (I'm a master's student).  I was  at my work study job in the library when said doctoral student came in and started to complain about the deterioration of the Oregon Acupuncturist's Association (OAA) under the leadership and philosophy of the new president (read: Lisa Rohleder).

What’s dancing on the edge of my list of Possibilities is a project for CAN writers and artists.  I hope that someone other than myself is taken with this idea, because this project would have to get into a long waiting list, and may not surface until 5 years from now.

The idea was born when I read a line in a Helfgott blog on April 8, about writing and poetry becoming a mainstay in medical schools.   I searched for examples, and came up with this:

“How do you like your walk-ins?” was the question from Bonny that started this blog.  I have a giant sidewalk sign stating “Walk-ins Welcome!”  I also advertise such in my monthly newspaper ad and on my website.  I’ve had 20 walk-ins this week, 6 of whom were new patients.  I schedule patients every 15 minutes, which leaves room for 2 walk-ins per hour.  My patients all understand that scheduled appointments are taken before walk-ins.  That way, those who are time conscious know that they need to schedule themselves.  Those who have flexibility realize that they can walk-in, but might have to wait a few minutes before being treated. 

I just got my hair cut tonight and had a very interesting conversation with my stylist who, like me, is a relocated New Yorker.

A few weeks back, in my Clinical Seminar (aka "Homeroom") class, a topic came up that got some people, including myself, a bit roused up.  We were sitting in a small circle and discussing specific patient cases when one student explained a predicament that they were in with one of their patients. The patient repeatedly came back to the clinic to see this particular student but each time they came they requested a certain part of their treatment.  For example, the patient wanted a certain set of ear points that a previous student had once done and in which the patient had received incredible relief from their pain from having done, week after week.  

Not that I’m really thinking of starting my own school, but if I were…..one of the introductory first year courses I would require for my students would be to work in a restaurant waiting tables. I believe it’s a great training for an acupuncturist, especially if you are going to practice community acupuncture.

Besides it’s practical applications such as fairly flexible schedules, good part-time income for a student and the food benefits it requires multitasking skills that the new acupunk will need in the community acupuncture setting.

My brother in law, Keith Leon, has just written a book called “Who Do You Think You Are?”  No, that’s not a challenge to your sense of self or family lineage; it’s a book about finding your life purpose.  In the book, Keith interviewed 64 people regarding their life purpose, how they discovered it and what advice they would give to those who are still searching.  He drew his interview subjects from many fields, but leans heavily on folks who are involved in the human potential and new thought movements. If you’re not sure who those folks are, they are a big part of the movie/book phenomenon “The Secret”.  

This week I am the patient.  Here's the story.  For those of you who don't know me, I am 35 weeks pregnant and in the final stretch (no pun intended).  This pregnancy has been great for me and still at this stage I was feeling great physically.  A couple days ago I was treating a patient and put myself in a strange position that I shouldn't have been in, and when I got up I realized I had this nasty little twinge in my right SI joint.  I thought it would pass-it didn't.  By the next day I was no longer walking so well. So, what to do?  Well I guess I needed some acupuncture!  

So, as a typical community acupunk, I get each issue of Acupuncture Today, but I rarely ever read the thing. More so than most mainstream magazines, this "publication" strikes me as a rather transparent vehicle for vendors and other monied interests to have a forum to push their agendas. This comes with an air of legitimacy, very thin air, in the form of "articles". (It's all about these great articles, man!) However, here's an article that caught my eye:

Acupuncture No Longer Golden in California?

Throughout my childhood I found myself observing or participating in art classes on a regular basis. For over twenty years my father taught drawing, painting, and color theory at the local art college and in private classes. Many of these classes were held in the evenings and as a young high school student that gave me the opportunity to spend time in town with friends or skateboard before driving 20 miles back to our rural home. Sometimes, though, at the end of one of these evenings, I would hangout in my dad’s classroom and, out of interest, participate in some of the class exercises. From these many experiences one particular exercise that my dad taught still stands out in my mind due its mix of challenge, fun, and fright. The exercise is simple. My dad would “loosen up the class and get the creative juices flowing” by asking people to draw or paint a complete picture, with all necessary

I was announced a winner this week in the StartRight! Business Plan Competition for Women Entrepreneur’s through the Rockville Economic Department. http://www.rockvilleredi.org/news/news.html I’m thrilled because there were 39 entries from MD, DC, and VA.  The other winners were all very high-tech business, some of which had already gone global and acquired over a million dollars in seed-financing…and I have this tiny-little, one-woman-show, community-acupuncture clinic.

After my business partner Justine decided to go set up her own clinic I thought I would hire a professional feng shui consultant. I ended up calling Feng Shui Boston which is run by Mary Stewart of the compass school of feng shiu. When she mapped out my office she calculated the “flying stars” for the year for my office. She made a point of saying that room we were using for office work was in the Five Yellows which apparently means great misfortune. No wonder I was getting headaches working there!

In response to the newly released Clean Needle Technique guidelines (http://www.nationalacupuncturefoundation.org/pages4-1-08/publications.ht...), which replace the earlier rule that acupuncturists may not touch the shaft of the needle during insertion with the new stipulation that acupuncturists may not touch the needle AT ALL  at any time during a treatment, WCA has decided to modify its clinic operations. The new Clean Needle Technique guidelines are similar to the previous ones in that they are not precisely clear how acupuncturists can implement them in an actual clinical setting, with actual human patients, so WCA has resolved to obey the letter of the law and embrace these regulations as an opportunity to create a fully automated clinic.