Kim's Blog

Being an AOM student at NUHS offers many options of participating in scholastic programs. This week I interviewed Cynthia, the AOM student body president. Cynthia is in her second year at NUHS. She has been dedicated to her studies as well as many extracurricular activities since becoming a student at NUHS. Cynthia has had previous educational and career experiences. She is dedicated to continuously furthering her education and ability to positively impact others. Her video explains her journey to NUHS. It also highlights how she feels about being a student at NUHS and what her involvement is on campus.

As I blogged about previously, a very unique aspect of being an AOM student at NUHS is the ability to be a resident at Stroger's Hospital. I'm a resident at Stroger's and am finding it to be a priceless experience! Learning within a high paced hospital setting is invaluable. I am discovering a variety of ways to offer patient care that are not found in many textbooks. 

Our clinician, Frank Yurasek, PhD, MSOM, LAc, shares many treatment strategies with the residents that he learned first-hand by ascended AOM and TCM masters from China. 

Mary Thuermer is also a resident at Stroger's Hospital. This is her second rotation at Stroger's. Additionally, she is graduating this trimester. Since she is nearing graduation, she has been a part of many educational experiences and resources offered by NUHS. From what I gather, she feels her residency at Stroger's has been monumental in her NUHS learning experience.

In addition to the information Dr. Yurasek shares with us, we are learning a great deal of information and clinical skills through our patients. Since this is a fairly new program at Stroger's, we feel extremely fortunate to have new and recurring patients trust us with their AOM care. This is a very new experience for most of our patients, so it feels very rewarding to be able to be a part of this journey into holistic medicine, together!

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing an acupuncture patient, who had been diagnosed with sciatica. Sciatica is a condition in which the sciatic nerve is inflamed. The symptoms this patient had included pain, tingling, and numbness which traveled from his lateral aspect of his left hip, referred down his leg and into the lateral aspect of his left foot. At times the pain was so severe he had to miss work and other common daily activities. He did not find much continuous relief of symptoms through his conventional medical care. As a result, he received two acupuncture treatments, which gave him long-term relief from the sciatic symptoms. This patient was kind enough to agree to an interview for this blog to explain his personal experience with acupuncture.