Blue and Bruised
After seeing an impressive presentation on acupuncture during our honeymoon, we were excited to come back to the city and find some quality treatments. Tidbits of research and testimonials had acupuncture curing everything from cramps to cancer. Then after witnessing the extent of my husband’s (rare) but severe migraine and hearing acupuncture was particularly effective against it, I booked an appointment at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. From the glowing reviews on yelp and figuring we’d only go for basic treatments I didn’t see much of a risk.
I had a very good experience. My therapist (Anna) was not only an acupuncturist she was also a yoga teacher, it couldn’t get much more serendipitous. She and her assistant seemed warm and welcoming, and happily answered all my questions and put me at ease. Over time we developed a friendly relationship wherein I looked forward to seeing her every week. My treatments seemed to be working, my husband stopped complaining of the night-time teeth grind, and despite the volatile market place I was feeling more balanced.
My husband on the other hand couldn’t have had a more different experience. His therapist wasn’t very communicative or informative of the treatments, and whereas I was sleeping peacefully in a private room he was shuffled between communal areas and private rooms. One evening he looked particularly disturbed, and I discovered it was because his therapist (without warning or asking) punctured him through his (non-sanitized) t-shirt. My eyes widened in you-could-be-infected horror. We reported the incident to the director of the program, was assured that this was common practice though the therapist should have warned him (or asked), and the next session they’d ensure he’d get a more experienced practitioner who would not be so cavalier about hygiene.
The next therapist (Kai) seemed eminently better from the first session with him, experienced and knowledgeable in multiple medical practice areas, we felt confident we would now BOTH receive good treatments. But when I saw strange marks on his back from his second treatments I started to have my doubts. He remarked that the floor supervisor had examined him closely and pinched his back unbelievably hard. I said nothing, thinking maybe it was a one-off.
The third time my husband emerged from his session he came back with a 3″ slithery angry red bruise on his neck! I was shocked. He recounted that the supervisor had once again come in and poked and prodded him, announced that he knew (based on the previous session) that my husband could “take it”, and pinched him so hard on his throat my husband visibly flinched just describing it. I was beside myself. Thankfully my husband is in graduate school — where indiscretions resembling hickeys aren’t so unusual, but what if he were going to his job? Just a couple months ago he was working in a conservative bank, how would he have explained this unseemly very visible bruise / indiscretion to his colleagues.
We both stopped going. It didn’t matter that my therapist was good. I was put-off from any institution that would practice something like this with little to no regard for how the patients might react. Frankly they administered their treatment with a heavy hand on the violence and too little on the healing. While we may still be willing to try acupuncture as a treatment, we’re only interested in licensed practitioners with a lot of experience.
