I had a near death auto accident 4/20/08. My rib cage was all broken up, L. clavicle and L. Knee fractured. Went through jaw of life, life flight, ER, ICU, hospital stays, nursing home, PT rehab and home care. After 6 months, I went back to work on limited time schedule. For all that, I am grateful to the conventional medicine.
But I was still on the pain medicine by the end of the year. Progress is slow. Pain was real. It was always winter and never Christmas, until my dear HMO gave me permission of 6 appointments with Dr. Steve Phillips.
Before the first appointment, I was scared about needle of any kind. And I was not sure if a Caucasian American knows enough to help me with a Chinese TCM technique. I procrastinated about calling for the first appointment. By the end of January, my pain got worse and then I saw the web site on the testimonials. Many of the testimonials are from health care professionals.
After that it is history. The first session got me off the pain medicine the same day. I thank God for His mysterious way. I am a Professional Engineer. I was trained to be analytical, question and doubt. But like faith, my journey is only proven by my own first hand experience. I am here to testify Dr Steve Phillips helps me through a high mountain of my life. And I thank God for his service.
David Choi, July 30, 2009
I was in a major motor vehicle accident in 1996. A car t-boned the side of my car at 45 miles per hour. I had a punctured lung, hemorrhaged spleen, 7 broken ribs, broken collar bone, shattered pelvis and a multi-broken and cracked tail bone. I was in ICU at UCD Med Center for approximately two weeks.
Once I returned home, I was dealing with a lot of pain. I was not able to sleep at all. I had problems with any movement and with so many ribs broken, it hurt to breathe. Recovery was slow and the pain medication was causing stomach problems and lethargy. I was eventually using crutches and struggled through physical therapy (which I viewed as torture).
After about six months of pain and suffering, the medical profession discovered my ribs were not healed. My ribs were flailing in my chest. This was causing scraping and tearing every time I moved or took a breath. Having flailing ribs for so long also caused a lot of scar tissue. I had been in a substantial amount of misery for a long time and it was taking a toll on me. At this point, I started falling into a deep depression, exhaustion and desperation. The drugs the doctors were prescribing were causing more problems than they were solving.
I then in desperation tried acupuncture. My first treatment was a huge relief of pain and the depression and the heavy feeling I had across my chest was improved by at least 30%. I continued with treatments for the next several months with continuous relief.
Steve Phillips has been the best acupuncturist I have ever used. I still have the pain in my chest when I breathe. It is a difficult pain to manage because it is related to breathing and so chronic. My ribs finally healed about 1/2" apart. This abnormal healing has caused chronic misalignment of my neck and back. To deal with the pain, I try to have a treatment with Steve about every two weeks. I find that if I go more than 3 weeks without a treatment, the pain level starts to rise higher and I start using more medication. As soon as I use more medications, I start having stomach and digestive problems. Then I start having sleeping problems followed by exhaustion and depression.
Steve has been critical to the survival of my quality of life. The pain management treatments are a necessary part of maintaining health for me. When you think about it, why would acupuncture survive unless it worked. It is against human nature to let someone put needles in your body and lay still for 20 minutes. Although it is not painful, it is not something a person would do unless it worked!
For me, acupuncture has become an answer to a chronic pain issue with no side effects.
Dorothy A.