On eleven eleven, I honor all that is sacred. A community that honors its warriors, also honors its healers. I honor the past 16 years of my clinic, and this 11 year chapter is coming to a close. Unless I’m mistaken, I believe I was one of the first acupuncturists in California to see a veteran weekly for neurological damage due to agent orange poisoning back in 2011.
Mr A and his wife called me from the phone book. I asked them later why they chose me, and was told “You were our first call. We started at “A”. Congressional pressure from the news media getting involved (to expose the hugely distasteful treatment of this family) that led to the VA paying for his weekly acupuncture.
After his first treatment, three of us manually sat him up as he had no ability on his own because of multiple system atrophy. He exclaimed, “Wow, I can talk!” We all broke into tears. After treatments, he had pain reduction for a week at a time, and would also regain his ability to enunciate more clearly for 1-2 days. A few months later, his PCP from the VA came to my clinic to observe what I was doing that helped him so dramatically.
In 2017 the VA got caught over-prescribing opiates and taking kickbacks from big pharma. This led to public congressional inquiry during Obama presidency. Within six months, the VA made sweeping changes that led to veterans with pain, ptsd, and combat injuries being offered weekly acupuncture with zero red tape involved. A week after the fires hit Santa Rosa, my phone was ringing off the hook with veteran referrals. I went back to my clinic that survived the flames surrounding our complex to a whole new practice–my clinic became a hub of veteran care and fire victim recovery.
My clinic has given almost 3000 visits to veterans; primarily combat veterans with ptsd, pain, or neurological damage. I was placed at a special moment with a special person at a special time. I was part of the beginning, rise, and fall of acupuncture community care for combat vets. I was part of a short lived VA revolution looking at constructive ways to truly help people with PTSD and other means of pain management besides drugs.
It’s been truly heartbreaking (literally) for me to see how the system works and how it treats providers and patients. I’ve had patients in wheelchairs and walkers walking again without a cane! I’ve had 30 years of Vietnam nightmares stop permanently as a side effect of treating low back pain. I’ve had patients regain the ability to move toes, fingers, arms, and legs that they had lost the ability to control. I’ve had heroes share war stories that they had never told their own families. The list goes on. I went from a practice primarily full of 80% women for the first 10 years, to a practice full of 80% men since 2017.
Warriors and healers aren’t so different. Both have highly attuned nervous systems and are highly sensitive people aware of things in their environment other people are not. Both struggle to turn off that gift. When we have to be on hyper alert for long periods of time, changes in our brain and nervous system occur that lead to PTSD. Acupuncture is medicine for that; rewiring people’s brains, ANS, and stress responses.
At this point, the VA has almost administratively strangled me out of business. This is how they cut services but lie to providers and patients with a front about improving the system. They withheld payments for hundreds of visits for six months in 2021, due to a simple administrative error on their part. Congressman Mike Thompson is the only reason I was able to survive that time. Thank God for the United States! God bless our veterans! We live in a country where you can call a congressman and get real help. And my clinic was in dire straits due to the federal government withholding money from hundreds of visits rendered!
As I continue to break up with the VA monster, I understand directly why there are mental health issues in the veteran population. It’s not just the experiences or injuries these people have in service. It’s the system and the community we live in not showing up to meet the realities of the human condition. ANd not understanding the basics of how to address a dysregulated nervous system from high impact experiences back to back. The question is how to help people integrate into a 25MPH life, when they have been surviving effectively at 100MPH life for years.
From my heart, I thank every veteran that walked through my door since 2011. You literally changed my life, my heart, my consciousness. Veteran care taught me this: Acupuncture truly works miracles when administered consistently long term in debilitating neurological cases. God bless our veterans, god bless this country and thank you VA for giving me the opportunity to truly know the power of consistent, weekly, long term acupuncture. Eleven Eleven Blessings to All!
