In desperation tried acupuncture

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.

Treated (for): Rib Pain, Pain Management, Chest Pain, Back Pain - Upper, Back Pain - Middle, Back Pain - General, Auto Accident