Needled!

Acupuncture is something I've always wanted to experience; in fact, it was something I considered as a career when I began pondering a change a few years back.  I even did a walkthrough of an Oriental medicine school and have done quite a bit of reading on the subject. 

Three cheers for Groupon and my friend Amy, because she found us a deal on two acupuncture sessions for $49.  I went for the first time two weeks ago and was overwhelmed - or perhaps it was more disbelief - into an inability to even write about it.

A little background.  First, I've been dealing with a return of right-sided neck pain for a few months, bad enough that I wake at night from the spasms and stabbing pains.  I sprung for extra upper-body massage sessions and got referred to an awesome new chiropractor - both helpful, but only for a few days.  Second, I've dealt with pelvic pain for years now since injuring my sacroiliac joints and the associated nerves and muscles - think painful uterine and intestinal issues.

Acupuncturists do an intake history much like Western physicians do - she took notes on my entire history and took great interest in the energetic patterns of my past trauma and current pain, which was a huge acknowledgment and relief for me.  I climbed up on a table much like a massage table and chose to remove all but my underthings so that she could reach any point she might need. (She had only asked me to remove my shirt.)

First she did a brief massage of my shoulders and neck with a peppermint and cinnamon tonic imported from China, which not only smelled fantastic but provided pain relief for the entire remainder of the day.  One of the first needles she placed was into the medial aspect of my left hand, down near the pinky finger - this was the first one I felt at all beyond the pinprick of insertion.  She continued to insert needles at seemingly random locations, about 30 total, all the while I continued to feel an ache and tingling sensation in my hand.  I also felt one single needle she placed into the back of my right forearm and one into my right shin.  She placed a heat lamp over the points in my feet and left me for about 20 minutes.  As I laid there, I began to feel a wave-like shifting of the pain in the right side of my neck to the ache of the insertion in my left hand.  Secondly, I felt the points in my right forearm and leg alternately sending what I might describe as little shooting sensations to my lower abdomen and low back - almost as if the back pain was moving out and back between those two points.  Perhaps I wouldn't even call it pain but rather a shifting of warmth and awareness.

Sara returned, and I described what I had experienced to her.  She grinned as she asked how my neck was feeling - I realized it no longer hurt at all.  She asked how my pelvic pain was, and I realized it was gone.  To my stunned expression, she explained that the insertion point in my left hand was on the energy line for the right side of the neck, just as the insertion point on my arm was a specific point that releases the energetic ring around the iliac crests.  The insertion point on my leg was a reproductive energy point.

Now because this is so significant, and please forgive me if this is more than you ever wanted to know about me, but by the time I got off the table my painful uterine issues had begun to resolve.  I was nearly pain free for the two days it stayed, as compared to the normal six.  My neck pain has yet to wake me up at night again. 

C-R-A-Z-Y!  You can imagine how excited I was for my second session last Wednesday!  The acute neck pain hadn't returned, but the general ache and tension had.  I was also having some low back pain related to lifting an unexpectedly heavy patient and was intestinally congested, so to speak (again, forgive me).  She did her magic massage again, and then placed her needles - including into my belly this time!

She had removed the needles in my scalp, but you can still see the one in my ear, two in my brow, and two of those in my belly.

This time my guts started singing a song, and the needle she had placed into the outer border of my left foot began to pulse and...itch.  Yep, itch. 

Can you find all seven?

I laid a little longer under the heat lamp this time, and when she returned I shared with her again what I'd felt.  With a familiar grin, she explained that the left foot point drew the energy down from the left side of my lower back (where my pain had been - gone now of course).  I'd also asked her earlier if she could help me release some emotional tension and anxiety, and sure enough, my pounding pulse and brow tension had let go while on the table.  Turns out that's what the scalp points and these were for:

New magic hand points.

My intestinal issues had resolved in three hours.  My emotional release lasted all the way into a tearful and productive appointment with my therapist the following day.  Sara also recommended a new probiotic for me, which four days later I can tell you is awesome:

Why health insurance doesn't pay for this, I'll never know.  The Chinese are on to something huge.