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| Penelope Jagessar Chaffer |
I remembered her specifically because she seemed so calm and relaxed in the midst of raging feminists. Oh yeah, and her new-born baby she was holding on stage (under the bright, hot lights; cameras filming and hundreds of people staring back) didn't cry or make one peep during the entire 45 minutes of stage time. I barely could keep my concentration on the other speakers because I kept waiting for this baby to explode and vocally display her lungs' capabilities because well... Uh... Isn't that what babies do?
Not this one! And now I'm wondering if this babe's acu sessions were the reason why she was so chilled-out.
I've got a few months until I start the nitty-gritty of TCM and I've been thinking on-and-off about how I would like to practice and utilize my education. Similiar to the Western medical field (Surgeons = Cocky. Pediatricians = Big kids. Dermatologists = Expensive shoes and designer lab coats), TCM is also broken down into smaller and specialized segments. I've known for quite some time, infertility is a hot spot -- Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, a school I'm considering, received a $1.1M research grant fund from the National Institute of Health in 2005 to study invitro-fertilization and acupuncture.
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| Celine Dion |
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| Mariah Carrey |
If celebrities are a reflection of society, then Mariah Carrey and Celine Dion (Both have stated using acupuncture as a complementary fertility treatment) are DIVA examples of the complications of fertility and the great demand for complementary medicine.
I'm taking baby steps into the world of reproduction. I'm not going to front like I go goo-goo-ga-ga over babies and children. Recently, I met an old college friend who mentioned a mutual acquaintance of ours has a kid who's 5 years old and my immediate response was, "Oh my God, it's like a human!" The idea of having the largest tissue in my body stretched out into unimaginable width, all the while having something that resembles and functions a lot like a parasite, scares the beejusus out of me. Don't even get me started on the ridiculous concept of pushing something the size of a watermelon out of something the size of a lemon. It's enough to make me reconsider the notion God may actually be a Man.
With all that being said, my A&P professor is a geneticist and he's been breaking down my least favorite organ system into something that truly fascinates me. I finally get the term, "The Miracle of Life". This isn't some Lifetime episode, it's a real, freakin' miracle that one sperm can swim upstream, dodge bullets, manuever through crazy pH changes and finally get to that one egg! Invitro-fertilization is an uniquely special modern miracle in itself. I'm also beginning to realize it's not fair for a woman to be reprimanded for choosing to have a family later in life. If anything, she should be applauded for making the decision to wait until she's financially and emotionally more capable of raising decent human-beings.
I'm a strong believer in holistic integrative treatments - the integration of using traditional and conventional medicine specifically for each unique individual. Medical studies from the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation to published books have varying results on how exactly acupuncture works in terms of infertility. That's natural considering TCM has a vastly different theory on physiology compared to Western medicine. Theories from, increased blood circulation in the pelvic region to stimulation of neurotransmitters, have been part of the results; however, the core foundation of any real treatment is to help the body return to its natural and preferred state of homeostasis in order to function properly (Translation: Help the body chill-out).
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| "Pregnant Women" by Steve Gribben |
