Lingering Notes
Posted November 11th, 2007 by andy wegman
While driving north back home to NH from Cape Cod tonight after the CA conference in Brewster, MA, the normally busy stereo speakers were at rest in my car. In near-silence (I do drive a tin-thin Civic, after all) my mind reviewed several scenes from clinic this past week or so - maybe in order to make room to process the previous two day's events...
...a young man looking for relief of pain following multiple ankle surgeries, sits in his chair after needles are placed. Seven to eight other people around him are fast asleep during their treatments. He remains awake, reading a book titled 'How to Relax During Your Downtime'.
...We receive a call at the front desk in the middle of a busy 4 hour shift. I listen to my volunteer quickly answer a question in the affirmative and offer an unsure goodbye. She sheepishly informs us that Mark in the chair by the back door in the treatment room is finished and would like to have his needles taken out. Evidently it was was Mark who had placed the call himself.
..."Stef" whose stiff/aching/burning LE's and feet have improved to the point she was able to wear socks and shoes 'for the 1st time in 3 years', has arrived for her now weekly treatment. Her husband 'Tom' has driven them both the 60+ mins. to the clinic as he has done numerous times over the past 2 months. This time he insists on bringing her despite the obvious effects the first chemo treatments have taken on him. 'To see how much these (acupuncture) treatments have changed my wife's life after years of pain and misery, I'll continue to bring her here unless I get my license taken away from me.'
...'Mike' the married father of 3 kids all under 10 y.o, works construction during the daytime, while picking up his own private contracting jobs at night. During his initial visit to the clinic, he mentions there's 'no way' he will sleep during the treatment tonight - while promising to 'at least not disturb the other folks'. He after all, just wanted his back pain to go away. Just under 3 hours later he was awoken, as I began to consider the affects of this long nap on the remainder of his night's sleep ahead.
Andy in Manchester, NH
Re: Lingering Notes
Couple of things:
- We have a patient who uses a cell also and we view this as highly problematical given his anxiety. However the patient doesn't see it as an anxiety issue. It will be interesting to see how this turns out...
- I'm in Philly right now and damn I should have brought my cable to connect my camera to this computer cause you folks will drool when you see the pictures of Korben's and Ellen's brick palace. Place is so relaxing that I almost fell asleep just walking into it. Its also a bit like CommuniChi in that its the top floor and looks out over the city. I'll post the pics next week.
Re: Lingering Notes
Yes, afternoons seem to be peak nap season around here also. One of the beauties of CA is that people seem to adapt to the space, realizing that it's a pretty darn good deal compared to spending $75 and up for a posh little sanitized Qi-limited private room.
That said, IF we were ever to have to look at moving our clinic I think I would opt for a little more open space, allowing for the placement of more plants, perhaps Sho-ji screens, etc. offering a mixture of privacy and openness.
Re: Lingering Notes
Oh, I LOVE the brick wall. I gotta say, that's one thing I really miss living in California: masonry. I grew up in a brick house, that color too. :^)
Our treatment space is probably a similar size, maybe a little closer to 450sf? And our chairs (7 of them, plus one table) are similarly spaced (but more in a curved line than "pods", because the room is long & narrow). We have a similar phenom of people getting up at once; sometimes it seems like folks are less exhausted, and so more "wakeable", sometimes it just seems like the qi of the room. I was buzzing around like a demon this past Saturday, trying to squeeze in some new patients (shoulda worn my skates, like a carhop!) and was surprised that all the coming and going and my own slightly harried energy did not seem to disturb patients, for the most part. It was also a foggy day - perfect for napping; on the other hand, it was early in the day, when people are usually less in need of a nap. Just as often I have to wake people, because they asked us to or because we're closing up.
Re: Lingering Notes
I've got a couple of photos of Andy's space....so here they are. Doesn't show at all how truly lovely it really is.
[attachment 152 IMG_7454.JPG]
[attachment 153 IMG_7456.JPG]
Re: Lingering Notes
Jordan,
Correction: Our treatment space itself is about 550 sq. ft NOT 800.
FYI
Andy
Re: Lingering Notes
Jordan,
You can ask me whatever you want. Don't think twice...
Our treatment area is about 800 sq. ft - wide open. We have 10 chairs and 1 table (used for adjunct techniques...bloodletting mostly).
I would imagine the bustle of 1 patient getting up in relative close proximity to others would account for the mass exit you are observing at Communi-chi. I also have seen this here as well, perhaps to a lesser degree...
Re: Lingering Notes
Just curious if you don't mind my asking...
What is the square footage of your treatment area and how many chairs do you have?
The reason I ask is to get a sense of the density. Our treatment room is 450 sq. feet at present (approx) and we have at times 8, sometimes 9 chairs in the room.
Some people will sleep or otherwise deeply relax for two hours or more, but...either Seattle people simply drink too much coffee and aren't used to zoning for a long time....or due to our space/density configuration, if one person gets up, several others seem to be ready simultaneously.
It's sort of like going to the seashore, you never know what sort of Chi-weather you are going to observe on any particular day...
Re: Lingering Notes
Jordan, I hadn't even thought of it, let alone heard of it - and thought it was ingenious myself.
Assuming of course, he was NOT calling because he hadn't been visited by his acupunk for too long...
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You raise a topic that came up during the NE conference a few times. I find it an invaluable 'tool' in our CAP to be able to let our patients dictate how long they are to stay each treatment.
IMHO, an artificial wake-up call has the potential to be downright corrosive to a patient's treatment - especially if anxiety and/or insomnia are issues, either primarily or secondarily.
Of course you have to have enough room to have enough recliners to make this flexibility possible...
Re: Lingering Notes
I've never heard of a patient calling the front desk to let the clinic staff know they'd like their needles taken out. That's pretty funny...or...at least it seems humorous. (?) I'm assuming the patient wasn't ticked off and may have even enjoyed a little humor themselves.
It does raise an interesting topic for conversation - about the conduciveness of CA clinics to group sleep-ins and all the various issues associated with that - like keeping track of patient's sleep habits during treatments...do they want to get up in one hour or three?