Monday, September 29, 2014

How I found Integrative Medicine.



I originally flipped a coin in 1994 (graduation from Family Practice residency) to decide what my next move was to be.  The buzz then was to apply for a Sports Medicine Fellowship or Maternal Fetal Medicine Fellowship.   I had a personal "calling" to fly to Arizona and train with this white bearded guy who was teaching about nutrition and supplements.  The only catch to Andrew Weil's fellowship was you had to live in a house for 1-2 years while training with the man.   I just had a daughter and the easier path was to apply to Sports Medicine in Chicago (4 fellowships available at the time).  I was honored to be picked out of a group of docs and off I went.  So cool to learn, be the team doc for DePaul, be on the field for the World Cup, be ringside for USA Boxing, USA Wrestling, Illinois Gymnastics and be one of the docs for the Chicago Marathon.   Will always hold that year special in my life and valuable...I found out that my FP residency training was above average but yet paled in its content and training for musculoskeletal medicine and it's importance in medical disease management.
I became the Sports Medicine consultant in a large group and it was cool seeing my own FP patients and getting referrals for injury and pain.  Eventually the consults were so easy, I needed a little more challenge so decided to fix the weak link between diagnosing and treatment: the dreaded 3 page carbon copy insurance request form.  Usually it took an average of 7 days to get approval followed by an appointment with PT or ortho.  I decided to investigate Medical Acupuncture as a facilitator for pain relief while waiting for approval.  Research brought me to Joseph Helms at UCLA.  After 1 year I graduated and applied needles to my first acupuncture patient, Sheryl who suffered from chronic headaches for 10-15 years with no relief from meds and consults.  After 20-30 minutes she had NO pain!!!  For the first time in so long she had disappearance of headaches!!!  I continued with using needles scattered throughout my day for tough pain patients and boy did I have great results...I ended up doing most of my acupuncture on Saturday (my time) since the use of moxa would smell up the clinic.  Moxa is mugwort that supposedly had some "healing" properties to it.  Needles for pain; burnt herbs for healing?  Something in me was shifting.
I continued to complement my practice with this alternative medicine and at the same time this store called "Whole Foods Market" opened in Danada Square in Wheaton.  I would go there for lunch and hang out in the herb isle and watch people choosing expensive freshly made food and pouring roots and leaves out of glass containers into specially marked bags.  What kinda hippy franchise was this?!?!  Then I spotted newsletters written by Andrew Weil.  Here is this beard guy appearing back in my life.  I took some online courses for nutrition/menopause and funny, as I finished each online course, a patient would show up at my clinic with the same ailments I just read about.   I was being called to follow my dharma.  I thought I had more pressing issues with the change of administration at the hospital I was practicing in for the last 10 years.  Through a series of head butting episodes (see  my chapter "The Kick in the Ass" from Running Behind -due out fall 2015), I resigned from my position and moved to Orlando Florida.  I thought my medical career was over, eventually bills piled up and I had to look for a job.  After 18 months my restrictive covenant in IL ran out and I decided to return.   I worked a series of Immediate Care jobs (no overnight call, no hospital rounds, at the end of shift you turn your phone/pager off) but all during this time, Integrative Medicine kept pulling me back.  I had to deal with the trauma of "not being the Specially Trained Doctor with good bedside skills" and found yoga.  I ended up taking a 200 hour teacher training course with Deepak Chopra and another 200 hours with Total Body Yoga in Mundelein IL.  (couldn't get enough of this healing practice!!!)   At the right time, I received a message from a representative from The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine asking me if I would be interested to join the fellowship.   That was how my Dharma found me again.
Since then I have been able to ease the pain of pancreatic cancer for my Mama.  Help my own healing and recovery from her loss.; find my way back to medical practice (I joined an "Integrative Group" practice in Arlington Heights 2012 -see my chapter "Quantum Moments" from Running Behind due out in 2015); and ultimately care for my Dad in his final years.  Now my calling is to set my footprint of practice in Illinois and share this with individuals, families, communities and the health profession.  I believe having a lot of hats to wear doesn't make me a weak jack of all trades who acts as a gate keeper to the world of medical drugs and procedures.  The Universe has pulled me in the direction of western medical proficient, traditional chinese medicine experience, ayurvedic healing with yoga and using food as medicine/medicine as food.   Administration has asked me, "how many hours of Sports Medicine do you want to practice?"   My answer is I cannot separate sports medicine, acupuncture, yoga, nutrition or mind body medicine into different clinics.....it is all part and parcel of creating lifestyle changes for people wanting to be healthy and minimize suffering.