Deleon,
*”I wanted to thank you for helping me with my back injury. On Sunday, August 21, 2017 I sustained a pretty severe compression fracture of one of my vertebrae. I spent the evening and early morning hours in the emergency room in severe pain. I was released from the ER with a clamshell back brace and a bottle of pain killers with instructions to schedule an appointment with an Orthopedic Surgeon. That appointment was scheduled for Tuesday, August 23. After x-rays and a consultation with the surgeon, I was informed that I did not need surgery, but the recovery process could take up to a year.
In the mean time I should continue using the pain killers to manage the horrible pain. I called your office when I got home and scheduled a treatment for Wednesday. My complaints were constipation caused by the pain killers and severe pain in my spine at the point of the injury. We talked for a while and you stated that you could help to cut the recovery time substantially. You treated me that day and within a few hours the constipation had been alleviated and the back pain was not as severe. It had subsided enough that I didn’t need to take any of the pain killers and switched to exclusively ibuprofen. We came up with a treatment plan that included 2-3 treatments each week for two weeks and then dropped them to 1-2 per week after that. After my second treatment I was able to stop taking the ibuprofen and the back pain was gone.
At my next appointment with the surgeon, I told him about using acupuncture in my treatment plan. I also let him know that I had not taken any type of pain killer since my second acupuncture treatment. He viewed this statement with skepticism but said that he didn’t see how acupuncture would cause any further problems. At six weeks the surgeon was surprised at how well I was feeling. He still urged caution but was pleased with my recovery. At 10 weeks he said that I could remove the brace at night when I was in bed. This was 2 weeks earlier than expected. At 16 weeks he said that I could stop wearing the brace altogether. This didn’t normally happen until 26-32 weeks.
On January 14, 2018 I went in for another checkup. He did x-rays again to check the progress. He was a little surprised to see that the fracture was healed. He warned me that it could be a year until the vertebrae was completely healed but that I looked like I didn’t need to come back to see him unless I had pain or concerns about my back. He released me to return to work with a lifting limit of 5#. I was astonished that he was allowing me to return to work a full eight month earlier than he originally estimated. I credit you and your treatments with my light speed recovery. Thank you for getting me back on me feet.”
– Mike Flock
