How 9 Bullets In The Trunk Can Turn You Into A Tree...

...and 4 needles in the head can restore flexibility and eliminate pain instantly.  I constantly work outside the comfort zone of belief, and history.  It happened again at Stroger the other week when I had a patient walk into the pain clinic carrying the fragments of 9 bullets in his chest.  About 23 years earlier I had seen Dr. Zhu use his style of scalp acupuncture on a wheel-chair bound victim of a "drive-by" and have him standing for the first time since he was shot (it always helps when you see what is possible first before you attempt to do it--replication, when done mindfully,  is usually much easier than creation).  When this patient comes back we will launch into the elegant and easy corrective exercises called Sotai, developed by Dr. Keizo Hashimoto, as well as continuing to use acupuncture to help him manage his pain, along with an orderly reduction of drug dependence, orchestrated by and coordinated with the M.D. side of the Pain Clinic.  I dreamed of this kind of collaboration following my first internship in Guan Zhao University of TCM Hospital in 1998, while still working as a Class 4 Felon Acupuncturist in Illinois. The gods grind exceedingly slow, and exceedingly fine.