What Good is Medical Intervention If No One Can Afford it?

I’ve been reading with great interest the reporting about the inflated pricing by Mylan, Inc. of the life-saving device of the EpiPen. It should come as no surprise that pharmaceutical companies raise prices at the expense of patients who are in need, often sick, even dying. Take Martin Shkreli, for example, raising the price of a drug over 5000%. Making exorbitant profits from illness is deplorable.

As an acupuncturist, I have learned a particular skill set that can treat a variety of problems and thankfully it is not regulated by Big Pharma. Unfortunately, acupuncture is--almost always--cost-prohibitive for most people. Even if they can afford a single treatment and feel relief, many people cannot continue to use it because it’s too expensive for them. And most people need frequent treatments. Life is messy. We get hurt. We heal. Then there’s that cold going around…

My husband and I often talk about disability these days. He’s been working on a poet, Larry Eigner, who lived his life with severe Cerebral Palsy. Eigner created a large body of work, despite his physical impairments. We talk about the spectrum of disability, what counts, who is included, and whether or not most of us will experience it in some form the longer we live. These conversations make me think of the poor state of healthcare in America. Eigner says that, “a thing must be easy enough to do, feasible.” And when applied to acupuncture, I would add that a thing must also be affordable, accessible.

In October, we support POCA’s biannual membership drive by offering treatment discounts to our patients who are members of the co-op. We do this because LBCA wouldn't be here were it not for POCA--a generous cooperative of practitioners, patients, and organizations who share information of all kinds. 

I learned how to start this business from them and fiercely stand by our goal of making acupuncture "feasible," easy for people to try. Because with all the good acupuncture can do, what's the point of having a skill or the technology to help people if no one can afford it?

Why I am leaving Community Acupuncture--and (finally!) becoming a POCA Tech Sustainer

I’m quitting Community Acupuncture.

Not forever!--anyway, probably not. This election year has revealed some surprisingly aerodynamic pigs, so I don’t want to make any hard-and-fast promises. I can say that doing acupuncture of the non-community variety doesn’t interest me, and hasn’t, since I first started doing community acupuncture about nine years ago. This work has been my home and my salvation, and I love it.

But here’s the deal: my family is moving, again. My spouse has let go of her career dreams for Plan B. It’s going to be a good Plan B; we’re lucky. But moving is hard. Another exciting plot twist: the town in which the Plan B job exists is my hometown. My hometown has no community acupuncture clinic and therefore no job for me, unless I want to set up a clinic there, work my ass off for very little pay, as a solo acupuncturist, for who knows how long.  

Now, when you’re a diehard acupunk like myself, that last sentence sounds like a clarion call. I actually got a little frisson of excitement as I typed it. I love punking, and I actually really like starting new projects; starting a new clinic is the kind of challenge I enjoy (probably because of what a polyamorous friend refers to as the “new relationship energy” of a new job). I’ve done it twice, and I can do it again...and probably, eventually, I will. I’ll find myself peeking in the windows of shabby empty storefronts and guessing how many recliners could fit; my head will swivel toward any “FOR LEASE” sign I see; I’ll go to the library and check out NOLO Press books on lease negotiation, just in case. I’ll start scouring Craigslist for used recliners, and haunting the university surplus department for office furniture and filing cabinets, and I’ll wish we still had a pickup truck. I’ll re-read everything in the Best Practices forum. I’ll even pay to take the goddamn Nationals again so I can finally get my Michigan license.

But after the honeymoon comes the long haul. After launching two clinics and being an employee punk in two clinics, I know one thing about myself: I’m a good punk, but I’m not a superstar. I’m generally likeable, I think, but I’m not charismatic. It might take me a year or so to really get where I want to be--and where a clinic needs me to be--in terms of patient numbers. The outreach and promotional stuff is hard for me, and it’s hard to ask for help (though, having a child has given me a real crash course in total humility). I just don’t have the resources for the long haul right now.

Also, I really don’t want to do it as a solo punk. I may be a secret introvert, but I’m a born co-operator. Parallel play is my jam! I’m an okay boss--not great--and I think I’m an okay employee. But to be really invested, I want to co-own. And when there’s a long row to hoe, I prefer to be yoked with another ox or two (or three or…). I want to share the endless decisions, the scutwork, the setbacks and the day-to-day joys.

The thing is, and here’s the really hard part: I’ll start to meet people, neighbors and co-workers and friends, and get to know them, and their pain. I’ll see people on the bus, at the grocery store, the gym and the playground, and see that they are hurting. I’ll start to get regular headaches again myself, or fun new allergies, or throw my back out picking up my kid, or I’ll hear the black dog of depression snuffling under the door in the middle of a long Midwestern winter. I’ll wish there was a clinic we could all go to, and nap together, and rise up feeling a little bit better, with a little bit more capacity to make our lives and our worlds better.  

In the meantime, at least, there’s one acupuncture school I can recommend. And so I’m finally (finally!) committing to being a POCA Tech sustainer. Because eventually, even if I’m not the one to start it, I want there to be a POCA clinic in my hometown--and in all of our hometowns. Join me!

Welcoming the Year of the Fire Monkey

I can't think of a better way to usher in the New Lunar Year than meditating with deep
in-breaths and deep out-breaths with the New Moon in Aquarius. This seems like a perfect way to incite the cosmic flames, welcoming in the year of the Fire Monkey.

The Chinese Lunar New Year falls on the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice, which is February 8th this year. Each Lunar Year pairs a Taoist element (earth, wood, metal, water, fire) with one of the 12 zodiac animals.

The main shift to note is that we're moving into the Fire element after two previous Wood years. Visualize the growth of a tree from seed to sapling, to a proud mature tree. Wood energy is a combination of water and earth. There's a slowness to it--growth that the watchful eye cannot always see. But as the same tree ages and completes its life cycle, it continues by becoming fuel for the fire.

The significance is in the transmutation of energy this year. There's a quickness that fire brings to the table, the manifestation and expression of ideas into action. Fire takes energy, and fire gives energy, simultaneously and immediately--unlike wood, which holds energy. So as things take shape, we must be mindful not to burn out with all that fire.

The second aspect of the Lunar New Year is the Monkey Medicine this year carries. Monkey energy brings an increase in communication, playfulness, and humor. They are social beings, good with their hands, and very swift. I've heard so many stories about tourists getting their wallets or glasses snatched up by monkeys in the jungle! This playful energy asks us to be alert, think quick, act fast, and most importantly - laugh at ourselves when we can.

Basically--in what I've read about the Fire Monkey is that anything can happen, and quickly too. Fire Monkey is the wild card. So when we find ourselves missing our wallet or keys in the trees, it will be a good reminder to pay attention, enjoy the humor in life, and to keep moving mindfully ahead!

"I am the seasoned traveler
Of the Labyrinth.
The genius of alacrity,
Wizard of the impossible.
My brilliance is yet unmatched
In its originality.
My heart's filled with potent magic
That could cast a hundred spells.
I am put together
For mine own pleasure
I AM THE MONKEY."

         -Theodora Lau

Drinking from a Deep Well

I have been involved in the Community Acupuncture movement since the early days, and it has been hugely important to me. I'm one of those people who, if they couldn't do Community Acupuncture, wouldn't do acupuncture at all. I helped start two CA clinics in two very different cities, helped midwife POCA into existence, and volunteered for various projects within POCA. This was the first POCAfest I was able to attend in the past year and a half and it felt like a really long time had passed. In between I dealt with some Big Life Stuff, including a cross-country move. I felt overwhelmed, exhausted, and isolated, and on top of all that felt bad about not having any energy to give to this ongoing project that I had been so involved with co-creating.  

Starting to work as a “punk” again for LBCA a few months ago saved my sanity; I felt re-connected to a community that I had been missing for a while. Going to POCAfest felt like a big drink from a deep well. It was wonderful to be with longtime friends and co-conspirators and feel like we could pick up where we left off; it was lovely to be there with Susan and Karen and feel like we were all there to help make LBCA even better, in our own roles; and it was almost equally wonderful to see new faces and hear the voices of new co-op members, including the POCA Tech students (who are now, amazingly, in their second year). 

My colleague Whitsitt once said that POCAfest is always great because in our jobs we are used to connecting with people quickly and getting down to the nitty-gritty, finding out what hurts (and sometimes what's funny, or just plain sweet); we're also pretty good about allowing each other quiet time when we need it. 

Each POCAfest starts with a roll call of all the attendees from various states and provinces (and sometimes other countries besides the US and Canada), and ends with a closing session in which folks voluntarily share what they got out of the weekend. I was reminded then that many people were in similar situations to mine: they had been around for years but had gone through lots of Big Life Stuff in the meantime, and had had to take breaks from helping more directly with POCA projects. Some of them (like me) had gone from being clinic owners to employees; some had made the opposite journey. Some had started new clinics, often with the help of POCA micro-loans, which your POCA membership helps fund. Some had been students and were now full-fledged punks; many were super support staffers, like Karen. Some were now students, “fired up to do this work,” as one of them said during the closing.

The fact that SO MUCH has been accomplished (including the absolutely herculean task of launching POCA Tech) in a relatively short number of years is partly due to the incredible, dauntless leadership from a core group of people--but also because we realized a few years ago that we needed to be a co-op. Because people would naturally have to take breaks because of Big Life Stuff, and that other folks needed to feel empowered to pick up the slack when that happened. Because patients and support staff needed to be a part of this, not just the “professionals.” Because folks had such great ideas for enormous projects that would have been impossible to execute without many hands making the work lighter. Because Community Acupuncture liberated us, and we wanted to share that liberation. Join us!

Breaking Into Blossom

When our web designer was creating LBCA’s site before we opened, she insisted that I blog. I told her that I hoped to be too busy to blog and was planning on having a monthly newsletter anyway. “You’ll need both” she assured me.

And so it’s happened, the clinic has been humming with nappers for the last year. Some people even think Schedulicity is broken when it shows no available treatment times, but it is simply a full book of appointments. The upside of being busy has led to clinic stability, allowed for 2 new jobs, along with lots and lots of treatments—over 8,000 since 2013. The downside is that there is less time to share stories about all the great things that happen at the clinic regularly.

In some ways it’s hard to believe that we’ve been open for two years and in others the slow roll of days is not surprising. Witnessing positive patient outcomes with frequent acupuncture never gets old and it’s been a pleasure to develop long-term relationships with people as their bodies change and health concerns shift over the years.

There’s a lot of vulnerability involved in seeking help and so much beauty watching a group of individuals healing together. Over the past months, the final three lines of James Wright’s poem, “A Blessing,” have come to me repeatedly, capturing the way I feel as the room fills and empties each day and patients come in to share their progress: “Suddenly I realize / That if I stepped out of my body I would break / Into blossom.”

I am deeply grateful to this community for supporting this clinic and providing me, and others, with work that we love.