So much for Integrative Care

As many of you know, my mother Georgia - age 93 - recently broke her femur, and had to undergo surgery to repair the break. She is back at her place of residence, a place called the Oasis which offers a range of assisted living options. My mom lives in a small wing of the place dedicated to folks with memory loss and dementia related issues.

Jeff Jones, the Nurse Practitioner from Dr. Shiva Satish's clinic - Fort Bend Geriatrics, is my mother's primary point of medical contact. I like Jeff, and I like Dr. Satish a lot.

Today: not so much. I spoke to Jeff today about a short list of questions/concerns my family wanted me to touch base with him about. One thing I wanted to know was if he could write orders to the staff of the facility directing them to give herbs from me.

Specifically, I was interested in giving her something to help her leg mend. As it stands, it appears unlikely she will ever walk again...so we're kind of hoping for a miracle, and hoping to do all we can to facilitate said miracle. Also, I wanted to give her a formula for her hemorrhoids - which subsequent to taking opiates for pain and anesthesia, are really bad. The poor woman is 93. I figure let's do what we can to make her comfortable!

Jeff flat out said no: "It's not part of medicine."

So from one licensed medical professional to another apparently a dialog will not even be allowed because what I do is not what he does. Great. Doesn't matter that this is my area of training, or that I am licensed by the state board of MEDICAL examiners, or that it is my own mother we are talking about.

Thanks Jeff.

What it is.

This week I got a cold. Because I take gobs of herbs, this is usually about a two day affair for me and I'm done. Thursday afternoon, I was hoping to make my evening shift, but wasn't quite up to it. I was sitting at the desk eating my Curra's chicken soup, attempting to re-direct my patients to see Mike, when the first patient - someone's mother from out of town - walked in. I hadn't been able to intercept her in time. She opted to forgo getting a treatment altogether, even though this is something she rarely has the opportunity to do, rather than see another practitioner. Now sure, I appreciate a certain degree of patient loyalty, but seriously....The thing about it in this case, is from what I recall, I have always just done extremely simple treatments with this woman and just let her relax. In other words, if she thinks I've been doing some kind of profound healing on her, she is sadly mistaken. I'm putting needles in probably about 8 or so of some of the most commonly used acupuncture points and leaving her alone. If their's anything profound going on, it's hers.

I'm writing this because this is exactly where patients, and practitioners, miss the point about what community acupuncture is. It's not about me, and my prowess as a practitioner, nor is it about the other guy working here being able to match or exceed me in treatment efficacy or ability. It's about getting some needles in and just being - preferably in a room full of other people doing likewise.

So I was sad to see this woman not get a treatment. It tells me on some level maybe she never got what was going on here anyway.

I'm including here a link to Lisa Rohleder's opening address at the first annual Community Acupuncture Network conference because, as usual, she says it better....Here you go: Right here

Mother's Day Gift Certificates Available

I just spent the past week in the hospital with my 93 year old mother, Georgia.

Georgia broke her femur just below the hip joint, and against some pretty slim odds (her heart function is at about 30%) she survived surgery. She might not walk again because her old bones are so brittle, but at least she will be able to transferred and such without being in excruciating pain. We said our goodbyes more than once. There were moments of gravity and moments of levity, but mostly there was just a lot of love.

So this Sunday is Mother's Day.

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times: There is nothing quite like acupuncture for stress relief. The act of mothering is unending work, and acupuncture offers a wonderful respite for tired, stressed, overworked moms.

Mother's Day Gift Certificates are available now.