2014

I’m not a good blogger. My website designer suggested a new blog post every week. I have good intentions. And then there are technical difficulties. Or misplacing the log-in information. Or illness. Or just plain doing what I love to do-being with patients, treating patients, staying busy with my practice.

Writing a new post finally came to the forefront of my to-do for a couple reasons. 1-I’ve had patients tell me I was going to be gone for a while. I finally realized my last blog post was just prior to my trip to China in 2013. 2-my colleague, Phillip Stamos has moved on from our clinic to his new Chinese Medicine adventure after almost 7 years with us. We will miss him and wish him all the best.(He’s been gone a couple months now, but was still on our website, which I discovered in a Google search.)

My trip to China last year was incredible from an education stand point. 2 1/2 weeks of learning from some of the best and most experienced Chinese Medicine doctors in Nanging, China. All the teaching was about the use of herbs and fertility and/or issues surrounding the menstrual cycle (for woman) or male factor fertility (for men). (We did spend one shift in an acupuncture weight loss clinic at the hospital. Fascinating!) Chinese herbs are practiced in the hospital with both a pharmaceutical pharmacy and an herbal dispensary. The herbal docs (this is all fertility work) would send their patient down to imaging for an ultrasound right there at the appointment. In a half hour, the patient would come back with the imaging results. The doctor then knew right away if there were fibroids, ovarian cysts, if the patient had ovulated or was about to, etc. Talk about integration! I really wanted an ultrasound machine when I got back.

I’ve been using the new herbal knowledge I gained this past year with added success and confidence. PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids, advanced maternal age, pelvic inflammatory disease, and male factor infertility were all covered in our training.

This year I also attending the Great River Conference in Minneapolis. It was again a wonderful learning experience covering acupuncture and IVF, spiritual aspects of Chinese Medicine and the application of Chinese herbs to pain.

In the fall, I made the leap into the world of GAPS (Gut and Psychological Syndrome)/Paleo/Grain-Free living following an illness. More on that in my next blog post. Stay tuned and stay well.