Today I am down at the Tiffani Kim Institute, where I see patients once a week. I have a new patient out front filling out her paperwork and I will soon start her consult. But I have a few minutes to blog.

I just received the agenda for my first Board meeting of the Illinois Acupuncture Board. There are only four acupuncturist from the state on this Board and I am now one of them. We will be reviewing applications for licensure, policy and rules, and weighing in on any disciplinary issues. Hopefully no one has been performing acupuncture irresponsibly in the state, but sonmetimes there can be charlotans who come into the state and need to be "cease and desist"ed. I am also hopeful that this will put me in betteer contact with the powers that be in Springfield, and help me better understand the objections to furthering our scope of practice to include herbs. I studied herbs for three years and passed a national board exam, but my Illinois license does not empower me t4o use that knowledge to help my patients. Perhaps we need to add herbs to the acupuncture license, or we may need to create a seperate license for herbalists. I know a lot of my colleagues are hoping that I and the other board members can do this, but right now I am here to learn.

In other news, my baby is crawling all over the house now and we really need to get the place baby-proofed. Does anyone know a good firm for this in Chicago?