Oakland Acupuncture Project was a God-send to me. I attended my first visit just to accompany my daughter with no expectation that it would become so important in my life. Upon completion of the medical history info, I was advised that acupuncture might help artithritis. I was skeptical about this representation. After an MRI, my doctor had told me that my left left leg was FULL OF ARTHRITIS. And so, for several years, I had severe arthritis in my left leg, suffered considerable pain and walked with a demonstrative limp. I had never heard of acupuncture as a help. OAP encouraged me to start with a couple of sessions a week for several weeks and then continue once a week. I would never have tried this plan but for the reasonable cost of $15 per session. It was wonderful - I could count on no arthritic pain by maintaining my weekly visits. Of course I also learned that acupuncture produced other benefits such as relief of tension, and unbelieveable peace with only minutes of rest. After about a year, I began experiencing pain in my left leg again. I was shocked and confident that my acupuncture experience meant it couldn't be the arthritis. My doctor's visit revealed that I had no cartilage in my left hip and needed a hip replacement. But for OAP, I would never have known about the hip replacement need. I would never have raised the issue with my doctor as I would have been sure it was just the arthritis and that I just had to live with it as I had been doing for years before. Thanks to OAP. I had the hip replacement, no longer have a limp and no pain. My trips to OAP are less frequent now but because of my experience, my husband and three adult daughters are OAP clients. My husband who is 76 has no pains, no blood pressure problems, plays rackquetball or squash daily yet gets acupuncture regularly as a soothing stress-relief for his busy day job. TRY OAP YOU WILL LOVE IT!
-Izetta CR Jackson
The Occupy movement has done a great job recently of calling attention to rampant social and economic injustice in America. At its core, Community Acupuncture is all about promoting social and economic justice. This post on Elephant Journal does a great job exploring the connection between community acupuncture and the goals of the Occupy protests. We support the 99%! We are the 99%!