I Got Poked!

Yesterday was my big acupuncture appointment and yes, I lived through it!

As I've mentioned, I used to go for acupuncture when I lived in Houston. I was a bit nervous since this new guy here was not an authentic Chinese practitioner, but a westerner. I even told him that. He was very understanding and explained his background including his training in China. He had a very good and calming bed side manner, listened to everything I had to say about my injury and my concerns and still felt he could help me.

One thing I liked is while we were talking, he asked me about my previous experience with Dr. Huang. I told him the procedure we went through, especially the part of after the needles were put into the top of my head, Dr. Huang would look at me, pat me on the head and say "good girl"! Ok, I liked that part!

This guy said that his plan of action was similar to Dr. Huang's, so I shouldn't be in for any surprises. I told him I was trusting his expertise, and I didn't expect him to be the same as Dr. Huang, and I trusted him to do what he needed to do. He said that he wanted to make sure that he prepared me if Dr. Huang did things much differently than he did. I liked that; we were all on the same page.

There were few differences from what I remember from my last treatments. For one, this time I had to strip down to my panties! Dr. Huang just used to move my clothes aside, but hey, I was jiggy with it. Once stripped down (thankfully I had clean undies on!) I laid on the table and covered my butt with a towel that was provided.

He came in, poked and prodded a bit with his fingers to determine the circumference of my pain, then started inserting the needles.

This is nothing like a flu shot. I could feel him, but mostly I felt his fingers touching me, not the needles going in. These needles are as fine as a hair if not finer. I tried to count the needles and we ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 needles. He started with the needle in the top of my head and for good measure then patted my shoulder and said "good girl"! I love a smart ass! I had a few needles in each arm, then down both legs, all over my mid back and one in my right butt cheek. I guess that one was for good measure!

I only felt one of them go in and I felt the same one coming out, and that was the needle in my biggest trouble spot in my back. I'm not sure if he hits a nerve or if it's because of the injury, but that one was a little uncomfortable going in and coming out.

Once all of the needles are in, he hooked the one in my bad spot up to something similar to a TENS unit. A TENS unit seems to emit a constant "buzz", but this unit is more intermittent. It reminded me of Morse code. I felt like dot-dot-dash-dash-dash-dash-dot-dash-dash-dot-dot-dot-dot-dot etc. He turns this sensation up to a level that is acceptable, but as high as you can tolerate it. This wasn't a terrible sensation; it was just there.

Once set up, I felt a lovely heat sensation. Since I'm pretty exposed on this table, he set up a heat lamp over me. C'mon now, can you imagine how awesome this felt? The lights are low, soft Oriental music is playing and a heat lamp is warming me up. Yeah, baby. Nap time. He leaves the room for awhile and I'm sure I dozed a bit. He came back a few times to check on me, but I was more than jiggy laying there. Finally, the timer went off and I was done.

Everything is now done in reverse, as all of the needles come out one at a time. Aside from that one, I really didn't feel much.

Now, the heat lamp is off, the needles are out and suddenly, BAM! He sprays me with this misting bottle and the crap was freakin' COLD! That was rude!! He did explain that this was a Chinese liniment whose name I couldn't repeat and once that cold wore off, it would get nice and warm.

Sure enough, on the way home, it did warm up and felt warm most of the afternoon. Not hot like a muscle rub, but nice and warm like a blanket. The smell was strong in my opinion, but not too offensive.

When I got home, I was really hurting. Almost like I had just been out there raking leaves again. I hurt. I think it was because of laying on my belly on the table for so long. At least that's what I'm hoping it was. And, the best part of acupuncture that I forgot about was that when you're done, you feel like you've been given a tranquilizer. For real! I sat here yesterday afternoon when I got home and tried to blog. I couldn't do it. I tried to crochet. I couldn't do that either. Even playing Pogo was beyond my capabilities at the time. I did google chat with my sister Cathie for a bit to let her know I was home and everything was fine, but that was all I could do. It really was nap time. I asked Phil to wake me in time to start dinner and I was out for the count.

Right now, I've been awake for a few hours already and I've had no Aleve this morning. That's a good sign! I'm afraid to say I'm better after one treatment, but right now I feel ok. That's a good sign I think.

I have three more appointments scheduled, one Friday, Monday and Wednesday. Hopefully this will put me back on track. What I can tell you is while he may not be Dr. Huang, I liked him very much. He instills confidence. Here's hoping I'm a good judge of character.

Of course, I will keep you posted. If nothing else, it was worth the $60 a visit for the buzz I got!