Level 01

Almost immediately upon reading about the Friday night essence, I realized that I already knew what it was. On Sept 16th, 2014 I found our 11yr old son in our home with a gun shot wound to his head. Over the next 4 years, I watched as Western Medicine first saved his life but then slowly moved him toward a drug induced life of lethargic existence. He was paraplegic, non verbal and was fed by a tube in his stomach. Then, with some very serious negative impressions but equally serious urging by my Asian wife, we started acupuncture treatments for Aaron. Within two months and at the coaching of our acupuncturist, we started weaning our son off of the narcotic drugs he was on. He regained the feeling in his legs and feet and started to make sounds! He is eating soft foods and watches movies. Cognitively, he is back – he remembers everything from his childhood. His acupuncturist was so astonished by his progress that one day she said, “I believe that this boy can walk again”! She was so adamant that she took it upon herself to get him accepted into a special stroke rehab center in China where she was educated as a surgeon and acupuncturist. She was willing to put her practice on hold for two weeks to travel with us to make sure that the treatment program of intensive acupuncture combined with intensive physical therapy that she wanted was initiated properly. Unfortunately, our fund raising efforts were unsuccessful and we were unable to go. That led me to my Friday night essence revelation: Why should parents be subjected to the financial, logistical and fundamental fear of taking their child to another country for treatment. Yes, there are very competent acupuncturists here but the cost of are not covered by any insurance and must be borne out of pocket by the parents. Yes, there are physical therapy programs here but are mostly staffed by young punks, doing their 30-45 minute sessions in their stagnant robotic routines 2 to 3 times per week as long as insurance will allow. Paying for the therapy needed to achieve the optimum level of recovery is totally out of reach. There needs to be a campaign to educate the masses about the benefits of this treatment protocol that has been used for thousands of years. Once more people know about the positive effects and success stories, it may be possible to set up a foundation that will be able to treat children for free – much like St Jude does for children suffering from cancer. No, I’m not Danny Thomas and if this effort could only help a few children a year, I will have achieved my Friday Night Essence.