The experiences of two friends got me thinking. Both women, about the same age, experienced the sudden onset of debilitating back pain. Joan, had driven to New York City (a 5 hour drive) and spent the night in a hotel sleeping on a rather soft mattress. The next morning when she awoke in pain which she described as “debilitating”. She went to see an acupuncturist. For her $175.00 investment, she got relief and the chance to enjoy the weekend with her husband and grandchildren.
My other friend, Elise, developed back pain on a Friday evening. It was so severe, she couldn’t even walk. Although she routinely uses acupuncture, chiropractic and hypnotherapy, she opted to go to the local ER because of the severity. She had X-rays, a CT Scan, was diagnosed with muscle spasms and admitted for two nights on IV pain medication. On Monday, she visited me for a hypnotherapy session. She limped up the stairs, obviously still experiencing a lot of pain. After one hour, she walked out much more comfortably, showing significant improvement. Later, she visited an acupuncturist and got total relief. She later told me she got more relief from the acupuncturist and my hypnotherapy session than she did from her hospital visit.
Let’s compare the outcomes and costs:
Joan was incapacitated for about 6 hours and spent $175.00 for relief.
Elise was in pain for 72 hours. She spent the same $175.00 for the acupuncture and hypnotherapy. (This is small town USA, not NYC). But, her insurance company got stuck with a much larger bill for the care that essentially didn’t work. Elise doesn’t know just how much that bill was because the insurance company and hospital didn’t share that information with her. I do know that the average hospital stay is now $2,300.00 a day. So, it is likely that those who pay insurance premiums, or taxes, spent $4,600.00 for this one stay.
Traditional, Western medicine is very useful in many cases which require acute care. But, doesn’t it make sense for us to empower ourselves by researching other evidence based options which can have far better outcomes, fewer side effects and save significant amounts of money?
