The son asked his mother a question and she answered. Looking at the table nearby, what he saw was somewhat of a miracle.
It was his mother's hearing aid on the table. Not needing any assistance, she was able to hear her son clearly for the first time after using the aid for 15 years.
During this occasion, both of them were in a cubicle of an acupuncture center where the mother was placed under a session where four thin needles were used on her jaw and neck by the ears. The mother was sporting a questioning smile while on the examining table.
I asked her how she felt and she said Fine. Speaking did not involve raising the tone of voice and so the mother was thought to have her aid on but no.
The mother and son arrived in Washington from NY after a local paper ran a story about the center which used the traditional Chinese method of acupuncture to heal nerve deafness, they inserted thin needles into the body as part of the treatment. Aside from its role as a pain reliever, acupuncture also serves to be a cure for deafness issues.
In this case, the term cure is only meant to be used with nerve deafness. Findings from the audiometer are available before and after treatment.
Nerve deafness is the only condition curable with acupuncture and in a population of people with hearing loss 35 to 40 percent develops this. Other causes such as diseases, punctured ear drums, and the like result to hearing loss that his cannot cure.
One doctor responsible for the acupuncture treatments guards his patients against false claims about the procedure, his interest in the method grew when his family was exposed to it during a trip to Argentina. About eight treatments are needed for a 75 to 80 percent scale in improvement. When people grow older, improvement slightly decreases.
Complete hearing was possible for those aged from 7 to 12 years old. He noted that acupuncture sometimes must be repeated eight months to a year after the initial treatments as a booster.
Waiting for other patients to finish their sessions was the US deputy undersecretary of labor for legislative affairs who was waiting outside for his tenth treatment. Aside from providing reports on the mood of Congress, this young Montanan was also tasked to provide the Administration with precise and unemotional reports with regard to the chances for passage of legislation affecting the Labor Department. Because of a virus attack in 1968, he lost hearing in his left ear.
Nerve deafness was the preliminary diagnosis he was given without any chance of recovery. Nothing helped including the hearing aids he kept on using.
Any conversations with people were done by asking the people to talk near his good right ear and this is how he adapted to the situation. Like in hunting, there were occasions when his hearing loss would be a distressing think and he could not get away from the fear of losing ability in his good ear. There was nothing the acupuncture center could do for him or so he thought.
When a cure appears to be that simple then there is room for doubt. Even if he had doubts he still gave acupuncture a try and the initial findings from the audiogram showed complete deafness in his left ear.
Having a phobia for needles did not help as a few of them were inserted in his body causing him to back out completely. He heard some beeps from the audiogram machine. He already underwent nine treatments and he says that he will keep on coming if he notices more changes to his 70 percent recovered hearing.