Dear folks:
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Last year in mid-November I was standing at my desk talking to some coworkers when I turned bloodred and nearly passed out on the spot. Days later, medical tests showed that the diabetes that haunts my family had finally caught up to me. Fortunately, I had not gotten to the insulin-dependent stage, but I can tell you that I have no doubt that the steady decline I was in and the problems I encountered in the next four months would have seen me there within a matter of years.
Before this time, I had gone to several Western doctors to try to find some relief from my physical problems. A short list includes incessant nausea; a constant dizziness with periods so severe that I was afraid to drive a car; severe headaches; an alternating feeling of complete numbness followed by stabbing, burning, pins-and-daggers pain in my hands and feet (classic diabetic circulatory problems); and problems with my vision that made me fearful of going blind. I was literally dragging myself to and from work every day; I had to cut back on my hours because I just couldn’t handle a full work week any longer.
Within the last two weeks I was back to my family doctor with a minor complaint. I told him about the work Eliot had done with me and even he noticed the great changes Eliot had brought about. My doctor, in fact, was so intrigued by what had happened to me that he borrowed and read my copy of the book Eliot recommends on the Chinese medicine basis of his treatments. As Eliot says, he does “acupuncture without needles.”
