GLORIA ALDAY PORTLLO

Why did I choose acupuncture and Chinese Medicine?

In 1999, I suffered from a debilitating case of sciatica brought on by a work related injury. After 3 months of being unable to walk or even sit to eat I had reached my wits end. An intense burning pain would wake me every morning at 3am. No amount of physical therapy, pain meds, or chiropractic work seemed to work. Nothing was helping! Finally, my chiropractor said, “Gloria no matter what I do, your body refuses to hold the correction. I recommended that you see an acupuncturist.” I did just that. Within a few days I was carried into the office and I walked out on my own! Still in pain, but I walked! What pain medications could not do for me for months this young woman was able to accomplish in a few treatments. I went from being bed bound from the pain to being a fully functioning human being.  What had just happened? What was done?  Why did this work when PT, medications, and chiropractic didn’t work?  How do those little needles do what they did and what was it that she did along my leg? The questions were many and the answers few. My curiosity was peaked but still I did nothing to pursue it.

The final push to action came around 2009. I was becoming an asthmatic and seemed to be following the footsteps of my father, who was a brittle asthmatic. One day on my way to a business meeting my asthma kicked in and I was quite short of breath with no inhaler in sight. “Wait”, I thought, “Reggie (my acupuncturist) is right around the corner”, so I turned around and went in to see Reggie. I didn’t have to say anything. He directed me to sit down, he placed a few needles along my chest, back, arms, and legs and within a few minutes I could breathe deeply again. Then while I was sitting there a man came in sweating and anxious. “Reggie” he said, “I need some help. I’m going into withdrawal”. Reggie stepped up, placed some needles in his ears, some on his body and then gave him a cookie. “Here”, Reggie said, “You’re going to need this”. Within minutes this man’s shaking, diaphoresis, and anxiety had stopped. Never had I seen anything like this! I had seen plenty of people go through withdrawal but never like this! “That’s it!”, I thought, “I need to see what this is all about.” I needed to understand what that was. I needed to discover how I could offer this to those around me with. Within a few months, I was enrolled at AIMS (Asian Institute of Medical Studies).  Within less than a year, I was asthma free.

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So why did I choose acupuncture?

Easy!  I wish to offer my clients hope, pain relief and an opportunity to a better quality of life the same as I was offered during one of the toughest times of my life.