Needling Me

I was working in the Emergency Department of H. C. Frick Hospital more than thirty years ago. There was a physician named Donald Yoon. He was Korean and an astute, wonderful physician who knew acupuncture. I didn’t know he was an acupuncturist until one day I came to work with a severe headache. It must have shown on my face, because he asked what was wrong and was I okay. When I explained about my severe headache, he disappeared only to return a few minutes later.

“We’re not busy now,” he said. “Go into the empty cubicle and hop up onto the bed.”

When I did so, he opened his hand and placed a small metal container beside me on the bed, then turned and grabbed a handful of alcohol prep squares. Dr. Yoon said, “I’m going to give you a quick treatment to ease your pain. He opened the metal, velvet-lined case and removed a narrow straw-like tube, then selected a thin wire needle. It was about as thick as a human hair. Cleaning it with the alcohol he began to tap the needle onto several places on my head and my wrists. I barely felt them other than a slight pulling. It was remarkable. The treatment cut my headache in half.

A few weeks later in a lull of activity, he herded me into our lounge and said, “I’ll give you a full treatment.” The areas that he worked on were much more extensive. I was sitting in a blue plastic scoop chair and if I hadn’t braced my feet, I would have melted out off the chair into a puddle on the floor. I was so relaxed, if someone would have thrown a grenade into the room, I wouldn’t have been able to escape. My headaches disappeared for years.

I’ve been having pain in my right knee. X-rays revealed arthritis but it’s not severe enough to do surgery. I visited an orthopedist who injected the knee with steroids. It gave limited relief and only for a very short period of time. After waiting six weeks, I returned to be injected with the “rooster comb” hyaluronic acid to see if that would lessen the pain. Again the relief was short-lived. I visited a pain clinic only to hear that topical ointments were my best option. There were too many vessels to try a pain blocking injection.

Today I am to see an acupuncturist. I have been on a waiting list for five months and finally it has come to fruition. I am praying that it produces a similar effect as my treatments with Dr. Yoon.