Patient Stories: Healing Experiences

“This has been a fantastic experience for me. As a family medicine doctor training in Western medicine it is often easy to forget that true healing involves treating the whole person. What sticks with me the most is that Western medicine treats specific diseases generally the same from patient to patient, whereas Chinese Medicine will treat the same disease in different ways depending on the patients specific needs. After only one day shadowing Dr. Lin and receiving a treatment of acupuncture, moxibustion, and cupping, I am convinced of the healing power of Chinese Medicine and the wonderful partnership that can be developed between family medicine and Chinese medicine. Thank you for this experience.”

–Kevin D.
 

“I started seeing Dr. Lin in August of 2003 for neck pain and headaches after a car accident. I also have a long history of migraines. She was the 5th acupuncturist I had seen for similar problems over the last 7 years. All the other acupuncturists who treated me were trained in the U.S., not in China. I believe this does make a big difference.

Dr. Lin has amazing hands and will find all your troubled spots in your body without asking many questions…. I used to have headaches once or twice a week, which disappeared with medication but would return the next day. My progress was slow initially, but now I am headache free for up to 2 weeks at a time. If I do get a headache, it is less in intensity, and I can still do everything I was planning on doing on any given day. I also noticed that the treatments gave me a burst of energy and a more positive outlook. I generally feel more balanced now, I can do more things, and most importantly I feel less stress.

Being a practitioner in western medicine (physical therapist), I know that I would not have been able to get these results with traditional treatments. I highly recommend Dr. Lin as a practitioner.”

–Birgit M.
 

“ I came to see Dr. Lin for a specific issue and I have experienced the most profound healing that I could have ever imagined. I feel that my body, my mind, my emotions, and my spirit are all so much stronger and more connected from the work I’ve been doing with Dr. Lin. I have learned to listen to my body differently and re-create my life so that I am free from stress and therefore healing on a deep,deep, level! This is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself!”

–Heather N.
 

“I am the author of over fifty published novels. I was divorced many years ago and raised two daughters on my own–one of whom is now a doctor of western medicine.

I began treatment with Dr. Lin on January 19, 2004. I had been extremely ill for 10 months prior to that as well as suffering from severe irritable bowel syndrome since childhood. I had most recently been treated with potassium supplements that had set off an extreme bout of the IBS and the side-effects of subsequent treatment of that had thrown me into a horrible state. I had also hurt my back lifting furniture over a year earlier, although the back and leg pain I was having were being attributed to muscle cramp side-effects of the medicine I was taking. I woke up every morning so sick I didn’t know how I was going to get through my day and so anxiety ridden that I didn’t want to. I was in pain–back pain, leg pain, stomach pain. I was unable to eat, and unable to sleep more than a few hours. I felt so bad that my thinking was scattered and chaotic and sometimes paranoid, certainly it wasn’t productive or conducive to writing. I had chills and was nauseated. My entire body felt as if it needed to be reset, like a computer that’s gone haywire.

I was not really sure what Chinese medicine entailed but from the start it has been a wonderful experience. The office itself is quiet and peaceful, and a much nicer environment than any other medical office I have been in. I’m treated with patience, compassion, understanding, kindness, caring and consideration. I’m never left waiting, nor do I feel as if I’m being rushed through. Dr. Lin and her staff know who I am without needing to look at my file first, and from the start their attention has been so personalized that I’m made to feel like their only patient. Dr. Lin was the only doctor to recognize that I have injuries in my back and neck, and that the problems there and in my leg were not side-effects of medicines, but problems that contribute–and to a large extent cause–much of what is going on with my health.

I’ve been treated with acupuncture, cupping, and sliding cupping. Sometimes–but not always–there is minor discomfort when the needles are inserted. My own tension level and the needles that are going into tight knots can increase this, but it never lasts more than a few seconds and then I don’t even know there are needles in me. The cupping feels like a deep-tissue massage and can sometimes be slightly painful, but attention is always paid to keeping me as comfortable as possible. After the treatments I feel somewhat drained and tired the remainder of that day and evening. The cupping produces some bruising and soreness. I generally feel somewhat ill for 24-36 hours after I’ve been to see Dr. Lin, but when that period passes I start to feel better and better.

Initially I would get discouraged when I would get up the next morning feeling not great. Then I began to realize that-–for me anyway–each treatment is like taking one step backward to go two steps forward. Now, after six weeks of treatment, I no longer have much stomach pain; I have occasional back spasms but they are brief and my back does not hurt constantly any longer; the nausea is intermittent, less severe and of shorter duration; I am not only able to eat more food and more variety of foods, I have regained my appetite; I’m not having chills any longer; I’m sleeping a normal number of hours each night; anxiety attacks have been fewer and more minor. On the whole not only do I feel better for longer portions of each day, I actually feel stronger as if I’m continually gaining strength.

I’ m also taking herbs which I seem to tolerate without the kinds of problems prescription drugs have caused in the past.

I’ve recommended Dr. Lin to several people already. While there is some immediate relief of some symptoms, this seems to be more a process of stimulating my body to heal and right itself, to achieve overall health, strength and well-being. From what I experience, its as if the treatments and the herbs turn a sort of temporary spotlight on trouble areas- past and present, physical and mental- so that there are times when I experience pain or unpleasant emotions, but then they pass and I seem to be improved once they have. I’m not finding it to be an instant fix, but more a steady climb out of the quagmire my health had deteriorated into. And certainly a few weeks to improve problems I’ve had for 2-40 years seems like a very great accomplishment to me. For that I’m more grateful to Dr. Lin than she will ever know.”

–Vikki P.
 

“Whatever treatment goes on between Dr. Lin and myself is tailored to fit my particular character, to encourage me to enter into the healing process, which is different for each person she works with. Our relationship has grown and I have received help on every level, emotional, spiritual, and physical. Hongfei is wise and kind, and working with her is like stepping back into the circle.”

–Sally K.