More evidence -- affordable acupuncture matters

I asked a patient if she had anything she wanted to share on the CAN blog -- here's what she wrote.

Fifteen years ago at the age of 52 years,
I was told that my kidney function would not sustain me for another five years.
I had been studying to be a nurse practitioner in Oregon at the time of
this diagnosis. The cause of my renal insufficiency was a drug I was given in my
thirties for depression when my first marriage dissolved and I was raising our
two children alone. The drug was a heavy metal,
lithium.

For the past fifteen years I have been
doing acupuncture and taking Chinese herbs. I learned all I could about
integrative therapies and became a healing coach

( www.carlapriest.com) . Usually the
acupuncture treatments were received monthly until this year when I found Diana
Di Gioia a the Community Acupuncture clinic in West Dennis, MA

I now am able to afford to get acupuncture
weekly and my nephrologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has been impressed
by my ability to keep my kidney function stable. I am still considered at stage
four, one step away from the dreaded “end-stage”. My husband and I have been
worked up for a kidney transplant. He is a preliminary match. At this time we
have been told we do not have to go on the waiting list for a transplant because
I am doing so well.

I am able to continue with my practice and
am writing a book about healing. (www.rejoiceregardless.com)  I am
optimistic about getting my book published and living to see my six
grandchildren grow. My life is full and joyful.

Rather than sit in a recliner for dialysis
and take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of my life, I sit in a recliner
weekly and receive acupuncture.

With great gratitude and
love,

Carla Priest R.N.,
M.S.N.