Why Acupuncture:  Diane's Story.

When I was young I would have never thought to become an acupuncturist.  The closest dream I had to medicine was to be a veterinarian when I was riding horses and dreaming of olympic gold. In 1976 I was the youngest to compete in the US screening trials at Foxfield Acedemy in Westlake, Ca.

At the age of 22 i had to have an overy removed .  A few years later an ultrasound at St John's Hospital in Santa Monica  revealed another enlarged ovarian cyst, this one the size of a grapefruit.  The course of treatment recommended was extraction.  When I left the room, quite despondent, my nurse practitioner said,  "You could try acupuncture , it has worked for other patients."  She handed me an acupuncturist's business card.   I was not in the mindset to believe this would help, thinking if the MD's here at a major medical center can't help me, how could acupuncture?

The doctors wanted to set up surgery as soon as possible, but asked if it could wait a week or two if I could handle the pain.  On my drive home I thought, "Wow, no children.  If i lose another ovary what am I to do? "   The next day I decided to call that acupuncturist to give it a try.  The first visit was an adventure as the clinic smelled like burning sage, with clear bottles of Chinese herbs behind the receptionist and beautiful Chinese scrolls hanging on the walls.  When the doctor entered the room I asked, "Will this hurt?"  Other patients in the room laughed and said she will make you feel much better right away.  She said she can help but I must  cook and drink some horrible tasting tea and get treatments 3 times a week.  I left my first visit feeling so good I decided I would continue.  I called my OB/GYN and said the pain was reduced and that I would like to postpone the surgery for now.   Well, 4 weeks later I went back to St. Johns for another ultrasound and was told my ovarian cyst had shrunk back to the size of a walnut!   My MD said, "Oh, you must have relieved some stress in your life."  I told him I went to an acupuncturist and took herbs.  The doctor sort of giggled and then he said maybe this is the wrong ultrasound image.  

This experience set me on the path to Traditional Chinese medicine, which was reinforced by another experience. I  suffered from chronic back pain, the result of horseback riding injuries, and car accidents when I was young and was then introduced to a chiropractor.  I found that the combination of adjustments, acupuncture and massage helped to relieve  the pain so significantly that it cut out  the need for muscle relaxants and pain pills. 

On a fun note -- in my family when I was a child we would line up in a train (my brother, sister and 4 cousins ) and rub each others back while watching television. We would rotate during commercial breaks and I was always pushed to the back -- the "caboose."  When we would play board games, we never played for money but played for massage minutes. My brother still says when we get together, "You owe me 10 minutes!"  He won everything all the time and between board games and swimming games I owed a lot of minutes, so I got a lot of practice!

My interest in bodywork led me to study shiatsu massage and Tai Chi at night after work.   My background was in the fine arts, studying photography at San Francisco Art Instititue.  I found myself working for a Japanese company opening up custom and one hour photo labs when I realized I wasn't going to get that job with National Geographic .  Five years later I realized I was not so happy working for this company.  Then one day I was talking to my father and  giving him a massage and talking about Chinese Medicine and he said to me  "If you want to learn Chinese Medicine, go to China" .

I went.  That started it all and here I am today, Diane Greif-Sheppard Ph.D, L.Ac.!  Thanks Dad!

              Mr. George Greif