First Visit
With Dr. Swanback

Home > Becoming a Client > First Visit with Dr. Swanback

 

Your first visit with Dr. Swanback will consist of a two hour appointment, which includes a thorough examination of your health status, followed by acupuncture treatment and herbal medicine. Our detailed health questionnaire, which you will have filled out prior to your visit, plays a key role in this process.

In addition, because so much of modern ill health is related to food choices and eating patterns, you are asked to complete a one-week food diary prior to your visit. This is an indispensable step in setting a new course. The first visit usually costs around 300, depending on the medicines prescribed.

At this first meeting a plan for your care will be outlined. Please be advised that this medicine works far differently than Western medicine, which is presumably the reason you are here. One visit, while quite valuable in itself, does not constitute a course of treatment. Like any lasting and enduring therapy, Oriental medicine uses modalities which must be repeated until our bodies have learned new ways of being.

 

Realities

---

Before you begin treatment, it would be helpful for you to know some little understood basics of medical reality.

We have all heard the wondrous story of how ‘so-and-so’ had this ‘health problem’, and she got one acupuncture treatment, and the problem was gone — forever! Right? We’ve all heard stories like this. On occasion, we get to witness them in the clinic.

But these stories do a disservice to health care of any dimension. They are the exception to the rule, and they fuel unrealistic expectations. They are a rare and brief snapshot of what someone may or may not have experienced in a moment of time. Can Oriental medicine accomplish the unthinkable? Yes, it can — but such examples are not what it looks like.

Because we’d rather you sought our help with more pragmatic expectations, it’s important for you to know that there are three stages of progression in resolving any health condition:

1. Relief from symptoms is the point at which you feel as if your complaints are resolved or brought to an acceptable level. This period may range from a few treatments to several months or more. If treatment is discontinued at this stage, most problems will return. In other practices, most people stop here. Ironically, it is here that the journey to good health can actually begin.
2. Stabilization is the level at which your health issues are truly resolved and generally will not come back. A physician experienced in genuine health care can best determine when this stage has been reached.
3. Optimal health is not a static state. Optimal health is the stage of perpetually pursuing a higher level of health. Given informed guidance, in conjunction with high-level maintenance (not to be confused with a high maintenance client…), this stage engenders the vitality, resilience, and understanding required to enjoy the highest quality of life you can attain. By highest quality of life, we don't mean the car you drive, the house you own, the clothes you wear. We mean the strength, comfort, centeredness, and clarity you experience every moment of the day — with your friends and loved ones, with your colleagues, and with your self.

---

 

For the motivated client, a prepaid, fixed-fee plan covering relief and stabilization care may be arranged at Dr. Swanback’s discretion after the first visit, giving significant savings over the pay-as-you-go method.

Should you wish to get started, please call the office at 505.266.5681 to make an appointment with Dr. Swanback.

• Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,
• 9AM until 1PM,
• 3PM until 7PM.