Ashley was left without a clear diagnosis and no direct course of treatment for her chronic illness until she left traditional Western medicine and explored the world of acupuncture.
Ashley's Story
"I have spent most of my adolescence and adult life with a chronic illness."
I was tired all the time, I got sick constantly, I had stomach aches and head aches every day. I wasn't healthy. I went to numerous doctors, and no one knew what was wrong. They would give me a new pharmaceutical drug to take every few weeks, and they were just trial and error trying to figure out what would work. I began to search for what would make me healthy, and I stumbled across acupuncture.
"I turned to alternative medicine out of desperation."
I didn't have anywhere else to go. I couldn't really pin point what was the matter, but I had all these symptoms and I kept getting more and more symptoms. Traditional Western medicine pretty much said, "I don't know. We could spend thousands of dollars doing tests on you, and it would still get us nowhere." I kind of felt crazy going to traditional doctors -- they didn't know what was wrong with me, I looked fine to them. Out of desperation I turned to alternative medicine, and I was introduced to a whole new form of medicine that I didn't even know existed, a whole new life style, a whole new belief system. Something about the natural and preventative approach to medicine resonated with me, so I thought it deserved a chance.
"I didn't know what he was doing, but whatever he was doing was working."
The first time I got acupuncture I was really excited, but I was afraid it was going to hurt. I went to a local acupuncturist in the Chinatown area of Atlanta, and he didn't really speak a lot of English. He had a big herb shop in the back. He took my pulse and looked at my tongue and asked me couple questions. He put the needles in, and it didn't hurt at all. I really enjoyed it.
He didn't necessarily tell me why he was putting them there or what he was treating me for. He didn't really have an answer for what was wrong with me, but he knew that I had a yen deficiency, and he knew how to treat that. It was text book for them. Things that traditional Western medicine wouldn't pay any attention to, Oriental medicine found really important.
"I have been getting regular treatments for a year now."
I have been incredibly blessed to receive regular acupuncture treatments from a co-worker of mine, and I have had a lot of success. It has been a very long process, and I am not where I want to be just yet, but I have noticed a bunch of little things. I used to be nauseous every single day, and I am not nauseous any more. I am getting some of my energy back, and I am sleeping better at night. Even though I used to be completely exhausted, I would lay in bed for two hours before I could actually fall asleep. I sleep better at night, and I have fewer nightmares. My digestion is better, too. There are a bunch of little things that you don't necessarily think are related to your health, but I have learned through the process that all these little things mean something. My quality of life is so much better.
