I Think I’m Sick. Now What? – Part III: Your Treatment Plan

Welcome to Part III in our series – “I Think I’m Sick – Now What?” In Part I, we discussed what you can expect when you make the decision to visit Nature’s Balance Acupuncture and Wellness Center for the first time. We started with a comprehensive health history which covered every organ and organ system in your body, and what, if any, symptoms you have been experiencing. We also discussed the all-important Oriental Medicine Examination, which included critical tongue and pulse exams.  And lastly, we talked about the initial three to five acupuncture treatments to establish a baseline of your responsiveness to acupuncture. In Part II, we talked about what would happen in those acupuncture treatments, and the importance of keeping a journal so we could gauge your responsiveness to these treatments. Now what? Well, that depends on a couple things.

First, what do you want or expect from your upcoming treatment? What are your goals? If you’ve ever started a diet or gone to a smoking cessation program, you set out with a goal of how much weight you wanted to lose, and by what date, or when you wanted to be completely tobacco-free. Your wellness is no different. One of your goals may be to be able to reduce or stop taking prescription medication for a certain condition (we would want you to work with your physician in conjunction with our treatments, of course). When would you like to be able to do that? Three months? Six months? Maybe one of your goals is to feel well enough to go back to work. When would you want to return? It doesn’t matter how large or small your goals seem; this part of the process is all about what you want to achieve through your treatment. Envision yourself at the end of your treatment program. How do you feel – physically, mentally, and spiritually? Are you happy? Satisfied? Proud? Now write your goals down. The simple act of writing down your goals gives them an elevated level of importance. You’ll work harder to achieve your goals, and you are far more likely to succeed when you do.

Next, how did you respond to the initial acupuncture treatments? Just as everyone’s body is different, every body responds differently to acupuncture. After these initial treatments, we will know exactly how you responded – which will allow us to develop a treatment plan that perfectly matches the treatment modalities to your body’s unique response mechanisms. The first part of this will be to decide the type of care that you want – relief, correction, or wellness. Do you just want relief from your symptoms? That is relief care. Maybe you want them gone once and for all. That is correction. Or do you want to have optimal health? That is wellness care.  Your treatment plan may be 100% acupuncture; 50% acupuncture, 25% massage therapy and 25% herbal & nutritional therapy; or 75% functional medicine and only 25% acupuncture. There is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan – and that’s a good thing.

Lastly, your personalized treatment plan will require commitments of both time and money. Your plan will contain recommendations based upon your response rate, what you want to accomplish and by when, but remember, the final decision is always yours and yours alone.

Will your work life and family life allow you to devote 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3 hours a week to your treatment at Nature’s Balance?  How much time are you willing to spend outside of treatments at Nature’s Balance to improve your health?  What are you willing to do? Remember, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is all about balance. It is easy to see, then, how a healthy work/life balance is important for a successful treatment plan; to allow this balance to be thrown off would be counterproductive and could seriously jeopardize your plan. The same holds true for the financial commitment. We will thoroughly explain the costs involved in your individual treatment plan. Will your budget accommodate that commitment, and are you comfortable with these costs?

One of the most common questions we receive is whether or not health insurance will cover acupuncture, massage, herbs, supplements and other auxiliary treatments. Unfortunately, there is no blanket answer for that. Herbs, supplements and auxiliary treatments are rarely, if ever, covered – but acupuncture and massage may be. In the state if Illinois, it is not mandatory that your health insurance covers these costs. We recommend that you contact your insurance carrier prior to coming to Nature’s Balance to answer any coverage questions that you may have.

Regardless of whether or not your insurance will cover all or part of your treatments, the goal is to provide you with the treatment that you need, and fitting this treatment plan within your budget. We will work with you to make sure that this goal is achieved without causing undue stress to you or your budget.

Remember, you are at the center of your treatment plan in every way. Your treatment has to meet your goals, utilizing methods to which your body responds, in your time frame, and a cost that your budget allows.

Conclusion

So what comes next? That will be the topic of our next post: “I think I’m sick – Now what? – Part IV – Re-evaluation”. After that, we’ll discuss diet and supplements. We’ll also hear from some of our past and present patients about their experiences with Nature’s Balance Wellness Center.

Interested in how we might be able to help you achieve optimal health, visit our Facebook page for more tips and client testimonials or give us a call at 815.788.8383!