I looked at the patient list early last Thursday morning, and the count was 51, with  15 being new.  However we got off to a slow start, which didn't help matters, Intake had a fill-in so we didn't actually see our first patient until 2 hours after our shift started.  What's great is we had some rally time where my 4 whiz kids and I had a chance to kibitz about fast-track protocols that could whammy one-sided pain.  The winner was the Korean 4 needle technique, where you identify the meridian the pain is going through, and on that side you sedate the Fire Point and tonify the Water Point.  On the opposite side you sedate the Water Point and tonify the Fire Point.  It was the flavor of the day for four patients, and knocked their pain down to zero in each case.  Three of them were first-timers.  That makes it a hard act to follow.

We got through our day, with most of our steady patients seeing continued improvement, and only 2 that we had to triage back to the Western Med side for an alternative to the acupuncture alternative.  One of the docs came down at the end of the day for a consult about an entrapped nerve from 4 broken ribs A nerve block didn't help any..  Two needles in the head put his pain in hiding.  But zinging the rib points on his left ear ( the side he did the damage too) and showing him the Sujee points on his left middle finger that he could self trigger really blew him away.  This week he comes back for a Tui Na Chinese Massage mauling, if he's game. If there are any pain remnants by the 3rd visit I threatened it with Plum Blossom Needle Hammer Therapy  Ouch..