Balancing Energy With Acupuncture

When Tammi Sprague was 16, she began a long and

torturous path that painfully led her to acupuncture. In her first

car accident, in the mid-1980’s, Sprague’s face slammed into

the windshield when her seat belt malfunctioned.  In her

second one almost a decade later,her car’s airbag severely

damaged her neck. Since the first injury, Sprague has had 16

surgeries and sixtemporal-mandibular joint (jaw joint) operations.

To combat the pain, over almost two decades she’s takena list of medications, including oxycontin, morphine and methodone. “I couldn’t even function because of the meds”,  said the 35-year old.  “I went through withdrawal symptoms the way a heroin addict would.”

After she stopped taking the pain medication in 2004, a neurologist referred her to the Acupuncture Center of Bradenton to see Barry Greenberg.

In 1993, she tried acupuncture once, but the process was uninsured.

A few trips there last year she said and “it was like a veil lifted.”

“I’ve not felt this good since I was 16,”  Sprague said.  “If I have to go every month of my life, that’ll be fine with me.” Sprague said she doesn’t have to know how acupuncture needles work. From her standpoint, it’s amazing enough that they do. “As a last resort,” she said, “I did it, and I would have done anything at that point.  I just wish I didn’t wait that long.