My Story
Firstly, welcome to the A D Acupuncture Blog! I’m Alice Douglas and I’m the founder of A D Acupuncture. I’ve decided to start writing a blog alongside my clinic work to try and give greater detail into how acupuncture works, how we can use lifestyle and dietary changes to improve our health and, most importantly, open up the conversation around acupuncture! If there is anything you want to know about, just let me know.
However to start with, I’m writing about me. I believe one of the amazing things about acupuncture is the relationships built between patient and practitioner. Having someone dedicated to your health that you trust is invaluable and sets acupuncture apart from many conventional medicines where, unfortunately, that is not an option. In a conventional setting, it can leave the patient having to expose themselves and their vulnerabilities to someone who doesn’t have to do the same.
I also want to share my story to explain how much acupuncture has changed my life and maybe encourage some of you to look into acupuncture with me or your local practitioner.
So, in a nut shell: At the age of 3 or so children are expected to grow out of nappies and become toilet trained. I didn’t. I stopped wetting the bed but my mum would still notice wet pants at the end of the day. I rarely had huge accidents. This lead my mum to think I was just a bit lazy, I didn’t want to stop playing with my friends and go to the loo. Children grow out of it and it takes some longer than others. She believed it was normal and that the problem would go away. By age 10 I was still in the same position and finally admitted to my mum I had no control over my bladder.
So began the hospital visits. it started with medications which took up the first 9 months. Then progressed to investigations, some invasive and some less so. I spend days in the hospital being analysed. Finally a diagnosis of Overactive bladder with urinary infrequency was given. Essentially my bladder twitched as did the sphyncter (tap) that lets urine out meaning I dribbled urine all day long. They tried to retrain my bladder with more days in hospital but this didn’t work either. I had botox injections into my bladder, which meant I had to learn to self catheterise, (insert a tube in order to urinate) but that didn’t work either. I was 13 and I wet myself, everyday, no matter what.
By this point, western medicine confessed there was little they could do to help me. They had tried everything they could. Through my own research I had read that acupuncture can work. I didn’t know what it was, neither did my mum, and the hospital didn’t really know either. But it was the very last option. It is all too common that acupuncture is used as a last resort, when all hope has been lost, rather than as a non invasive, gentle therapy to make a start with. Using the British Acupuncture Council website, we found the contact details of an acupuncturist close by. I instantly connected with her, she was interested in my case and she has turned out to be one of the most influential people in my life. After 6 weeks of treatment, my symptoms began to improve. And neither me, my mum, or my acupuncturist could quite believe it.
My acupuncture journey was a long one. I had weekly treatment for nearly a year, I had huge set backs and leaps forward. But ACUPUNCTURE CURED ME. And allowed me to live a normal life like all my teenage friends. The relationship I built with my acupuncturist is extremely prominent too. Throughout my teenage years and beyond I have had someone I can confide in without any risk of judgement or ridicule. Someone who I can speak openly to about every part of my body and mind. She is now also a professional mentor and amazing friend.
As well as my health, acupuncture obviously had a different impact on me too. My own experiences lead me to finish school and then decide to study acupuncture. I had grown up wanting to study medicine and although I have done it in a different way to how I expected, I have. I went to the City College of Acupuncture, where I learnt loads and met some brilliant people. In my final year I started to develop a special interest in bladder conditions, particularly Interstitial Cystitis. Now as a qualified acupuncturist, I want to help others in the way I was helped, as I know just what a difference you can make if you are caring, non judgemental, and good at acupuncture!
I hope this post has given a little insight into my life, and hopefully given you a pretty impressive acupuncture success story, so if you needed that last nudge to give it a go, you just got it. No more waiting around, get in touch!
