"I never believed in Oriental Medicine. I didn't know anything about it, I was terrified when I saw people all stuck with needles that seemed to me to cause a terrible discomfort.

I worked as a physical education and Spanish teacher in the city of San Diego, California, when a tragedy  occurred in my life. From one day to the next I started to feel severe pains in my right leg and in a short time that situation got worse to the point where I could no longer stand up. That scared me! As I was always very active, dedicated to sports, and with the intensity of the pain I felt, I found myself in a situation of despair. I couldn't carry out my daily activities anymore, driving was horrible, because I was in excruciating pain and I started to think that I wouldn't be able to go back to normal anymore, and despair was lodged in my life.  

In my work environment, with well-educated and educated people, I started looking for information about treatments for my situation. Everyone told me that the only viable way out would be surgery. I went into more despair. Seeking more information about treatments, they told me a lot about the injection of anesthetic into the spine. That made me even more desperate. The idea  opening my spine for surgery or putting chemicals inside me made me uneasy, and I was guided by a voice in my heart telling me to keep looking for other methods of treatment.

So I went for an appointment with a Western medicine professional...he spent about 7 minutes with me and prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs for me to take, but I didn't like the way I was evaluated, that small, strong voice kept telling me to that I look for other means of treatment.

The only option I knew left was physical therapy. I was evaluated by a competent professional, who after her analysis prescribed me a consistent treatment.  7 months in duration. I went into depression, deep sadness, and I was already thinking at this point that my only way out would be to return to Brazil, without being able to walk.

It was then, as if by chance, while talking to a friend (Ricardo Sampaio), I was asked if I knew about acupuncture and oriental medicine. He said he knew nothing, and that he was terrified of the needles. He told me that he had been undergoing the treatments for some time and that his improvement was tremendous. After a few minutes of conversation, I decided to risk having a treatment with Basha (a professional of oriental medicine), because I didn't have any more choices, I had to  try something new and totally weird  for me, or return to Brazil, incapacitated.

My first contact with Basha (Oriental doctor) was something that left a mark on me forever. The professional spent about 40 minutes just talking to me and the  first impression was that I was talking to someone who was really interested in my health. After the conversation, where he went through my entire history, I was taken to a room for the first acupuncture session. To my surprise, I didn't feel the needles enter my body, as they were very fine!

I slept a deep sleep, I barely knew where I was when I woke up. I felt totally relaxed. To summarize the story, in about 7 treatments I was standing, walking normally, perplexed.  because it got good only through  of natural healing methods. I thought that was amazing and it was something that would change me forever.

Nowadays I love talking to people who are in situations  where I was: with no way out, with serious health conditions, desperate, and who do not believe in Oriental Medicine, as I did not believe either. It's these people that make me  breathing new air every day, looking for knowledge to help them when they arrive in my office with no other healing options, without hope, and leave with their conditions resolved."

Carlos Frederico Lima