Acupuncture, as well as other homeopathic and ancient healing methods, has always fascinated me, and that is originally why #2 made its way onto my 30 Things list. As of late, however, my interest has piqued significantly, going from "I'd like to try this so I can say I tried it" to actually hoping it could make a medical difference. Let me tell you a little story...As many of you know, I suffer from Crohn's Disease, as well as other annoying ailments like allergies, headaches, acne, etc., all of which tend to result in me ingesting a far greater quantity of medication than I'd like. And as I've made certain changes in my life -- becoming a vegetarian, trying to eat mostly organic foods, using only organic and natural cosmetics -- I've started to see all of these medications in a different light. Sure, some medications and treatments are absolutely necessary (I am NOT one of those people that won't vaccinate my kids, or refuses to pop an Advil to cure a headache), but I've noticed more and more lately that doctors try to treat the symptoms of illness, rather than doing the necessary exploration to find and treat the cause of the symptom. Not to give too much information here, but I went to the dermatologist the other day because I've got some chest and back acne that's bugging me. I clearly stated to the doctor that I really didn't care to be on acne medication for the rest of my life so I was hoping to figure out what was causing the acne and treat that. Of course, she nodded along like she agreed at first, but then she hurried me out of the office with three prescriptions for various pills, creams and lotions that she even admitted wouldn't cure me, but would keep things in a controlled state. How's that for exactly the opposite of what I asked for?
At the end of the day, this is a very long-winded way of saying that my distaste for doctors' attitudes and prescription-writing frenzies has further increased my desire to pursue alternate courses of treatment for some of these less-critical and more annoying conditions. And therefore, conveniently having acupuncture on my list, and even more conveniently meeting a friend at work that is undergoing acupuncture, made my decision to schedule my first appointment simple.
Let me start by saying that there's no reason to hide the fact that actually making the appointment and driving myself to the office scared the crap out of me (ok, I was scared during the evaluation, too, and stayed scared until she put the first needle in my foot...but I'll get to that in a minute). I think it would be an outright lie if anyone who has never had acupuncture tried to sit here and say the thought of someone sticking multiple needles into various body parts wasn't a bit unnerving (unless maybe you've gotten a tattoo in which case you apparently have no aversion to unnecessarily sticking yourself with needles...next time, try acupuncture instead, it's way less permanent).
My appointment at Ling's Acupuncture was for 12noon on Saturday (part of the appeal of this place is the Saturday hours!) and after arriving I was promptly ushered into a small room that looked very much like a typical doctor's office waiting room, except with slightly more soothing lighting. Dr. Wang came in shortly thereafter and asked me a series of medical questions -- why was I here? when did I feel pain? what helped the pain? how long did it last? -- after which she explained that acupuncture is designed to restore the balance in the body...something about qi, which is pronounced chee, but honestly she was talking so fast in somewhat broken English and I was still scared as heck, so I caught about 30% of what she was saying. I do remember that she stated that acupuncture can help increase blood flow in the body, or balance your yin and yang, which apparently represent heat and cold. By this point, I was just ready to get started and see what these needles felt like.
Dr. Wang had me lay on the table and she started wiping down certain areas of my body with an alcohol swab (feet, legs, belly, hands, forehead and scalp...and yes, when she went up to my forehead and scalp I got a little more scared). But then all of a sudden she was down by my feet and said "is that okay?" and I was like...is what okay? Wait, you just stuck a needle in me? I hadn't felt a darn thing. Le sigh. This wasn't going to hurt! Hallelujah! Dr. Wang continued sticking my feet and legs and I couldn't feel any of it. I got a little more nervous when she came up to my belly, but she told me to relax, that she'd be very gentle and she was right. There were a couple of needles that stung the slightest bit (one in my left hand, in particular), but for the most part, the experience was absolutely painless.
The best part comes next. Dr. Wang turned on a heat lamp and focused it on my midriff, put on soothing Chinese instrumental music and left me to relax for 25 minutes. Seriously guys, I think I was asleep 10 minutes in. I actually woke myself up with a loud snort, which is a bad sign that I was probably snoring. Regardless, I felt refreshed by the time Dr. Wang came back in to remove the needles and send me on my merry way.
Of course, one treatment isn't supposed to really accomplish much (just as going to the gym one time won't turn you into a body builder), so I'm scheduled to go back next weekend for treatment two. The likelihood of me being able to keep up with this in the long term is probably pretty slim as it's $75 a treatment, but I figure I'll give it a month and if it seems to have worked miracles, I may re-evaluate my finances to see if this can't be squeezed in. For now, I'm just glad that I faced another one of my fears and crossed another item off my list!
Til next time...
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