01/05/2021
COVID-19
- A PRACTITIONER'S PERSPECTIVE
„I have been a perioperative nurse in France for more than 20 years and an acupuncturist since 2014.
Following my first seminar with Delphine in December 2015, I gained a clarity that had escaped me during my years of formal TCM studies. The course ignited my Cartesian and mathematical side and for the first time I was able to make more sense of what I had studied in school.
From that moment on, I started using the Si Yuan Balance Method exclusively in my practice. Though I kept working at a medical center (for financial security purposes) while building my practice.
ACUPUNCTURE IN MEDICAL CENTERS
I work in the operating ward, so I am in constant contact with surgeons and anesthesiologists. I have treated a number of them for various ailments such as acute pain, but also for exhaustion, burn-out, major sleep disorders, stress, etc. The work-shifts are hectic for doctors.
A few years ago, supported by two department heads (pain and cancer) I submitted a proposal to practice acupuncture at my medical center. Management rejected the proposal, the issue being that I am not a trained allopathic medical doctor.
NEEDLING A COVID PATIENT
At the start of the COVID stay-at-home order, I was working the night shift over a March weekend. On Saturday night, a nurse who is COVID positive along with his father called the hospital. His father was going to be rushed to the hospital for respiratory distress. That's when I begged him to let me see this man. I got the go-ahead and they agreed to let me use my needles.
Before his arrival that night, I had needled all of my colleagues in the ward. They all had diverse symptoms: migraines, difficulty breathing deeply, cough, fatigue, anger, helplessness faced with the COVID patients who were lining up in the emergency room.
At 1:30am I found myself in front of the 70-year-old COVID positive patient. The patient was brought in by ambulance, stressed out and above all exhausted. He was feverish since the onset of symptoms with a temperature of 38.5°C, dyspneic, pale, difficulty speaking, 6 liters of O2 and saturation between 94 and 96 under oxygen.
I needled with all the YI QI LI which I had - Thank you Paul!
1) Sick Meridians: Ren, Kidney, ST, Heat meridians (because of fever)
2) Balance: Global Balance Taiyin/Yang Ming + Kidney (Shaoyin deficiency) and SI
3) Points: Taiyin/Yang Ming Meridian Conversion + Seasonal Balance on Kidney and 5-Element balance (Earth over Fire) on SI
The patient felt better very quickly – in a few minutes. However, the clinical progression was difficult for me to gauge. The patient was exhausted. With the needles inserted, the saturation was around 97 under oxygen.
He was less dyspneic and more relaxed. I removed the needles, intending to needle again on Sunday around 6pm before my third night shift.
THE RESULTS
At 7 in the morning, 5 hours after treatment, the fever had finally subsided. The patient was stable and transferred to another department. An anesthesiologist called the ward's on-call doctor to explain the situation and ask permission to see the patient. I was categorically refused permission – that nothing has been proven and acupuncture is irrational. Is it better to watch people deteriorate while giving them paracetamol?
The following Thursday, the head of the chief anesthesiologist called me at home to ask if I could needle the patient. I replied that I wanted the administration's consent to go ahead. He asked the assistant director who didn't want to take responsibility for the decision.
About a month later, I ran into the son of the seriously-ill COVID patient. He thanked me and told me that the acupuncture treatments had really helped his father. After 15 days, he had left the hospital and remained on oxygen at home. Two days ago, he began to feel well enough to begin working around the house again. As for my colleagues from that weekend, all symptoms had disappeared and everyone was happy and full of energy.
Again grateful for Delphine's teachings.
Once practitioners have used this method and observed its results, they know what will or won't be feasible.“
