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Traditional acupuncture and my
experience
So far you have learned about the general traits of
constitutional medicine. Starting now, you will learn about
constitutional acupuncture as a method of clinical treatment to which is
applied the theory of constitutional medicine.
Before starting the lecture I will present a personal experience which
drastically changed my life in the practice of acupuncture. I finished a
six-year course of study in oriental medicine and acquired a doctor's license.
After continuing my studies in a masters course, I opened my own clinic and
began to practice.
A year passed after opening my own clinic. One day a charming high school girl
in a school uniform visited me because of pain in the lower back. I treated her
for a week with acupuncture learned in the university, but that had no effect
and she continued to complain of the pain. Another week passed with my diligent
treatment, but her pain remained.
Usually in that kind of situation, a patient will quit treatment and seek
another clinic or hospital. However, she was different. Despite my more than
two weeks of treatment with no effect, she continued to visit me. When I asked
before the acupuncture treatment,, she always answered that the pain continues.
A third week passed. I as a doctor was always tormented to hear that the pain
still hadn't gone away. She should have gone to another doctor, but maybe
because of her naivete she persistently came back to me.
Why then doesn't she get better, in spite of my best efforts applying the
knowledge learned in the university? Then I finally knew that there are
patients who aren't cured even by treatment done by the book. I was all the
more confused because I felt incompetent, having only the same remedy to apply
even though it had no effect.
One day I found myself even wishing that she would stop coming. Finally that's
what happened, but my memory of this patient remains fervent as the most
embarrassing memory even now more than twenty years of practice later.
But this experience was the deciding point to find a new way out in the
research process of my acupuncture treatment. Continuing my treatment, I
occasionally didn't have the expected results for lack of experience and
knowledge, and I felt like I had fallen into a dead-end street. But meanwhile I
always tried hard to find a solution.
I thought that many doctors of traditional acupuncture could partly sympathize
with my personal experience, and I am certain that if you find the limits of
the traditional acupuncture that you are using, and try to become a more
competent doctor, you will be willing to invest time and effort in learning a
new acupuncture.
Modern medicine is constantly changing with the progress in science. Similarly,
acupuncture must not remain as only the traditional acupuncture of
thousands of years ago, but courageously break through its limits.
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