Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Get To The "Point" with Acupuncture

I know everyone out there is waiting with baited breath on the outcome of my acupuncture visit.  Especially my friends in Hong Kong, wondering if I've finally been able to balance my Chi. Well, the outcome - as my mother can already tell you, my wiring is all screwed up!

I had two very impressive (I am being serious here) doctors.  One born in Malaysia but from HK parents and the other born and raised in HK.  The new doctor was not aware of my infinitely tiny understanding of the Cantonese language until he asked me a question and I (of course) answered, "Moh Men Thai" (no problems/no worries).  We then compared notes and he took me to the extent of my language abilities (my old address, "midlevels", beer please).  I was then told to relax and stick out my tongue.  I apparently have some 'heart' problems (not literally, but spiritual heart issues).  Of course I couldn't think of what these were so we moved on.  I had needles placed between every finger of my hand and in about 8 other places on my legs.  They were trying to connect my chi from the hands down to the pains I have been having in my feet. They were cautious as they didn't want to over-needle me on my first visit.  I learned a lot about "spleen5" and "kidney9" (eyes closed, relaxing thinking I'm going to get a needle in the belly only to get one in the ankle!)

Unfortunately I didn't really experience anything.  I'm going back next week to try again and we agreed to try approximately five sessions to get something going.  I would really like to see this work but I think you do have to have yourself in the correct mental state for it to work.  Coming from work and having had three cups of coffee that morning I don't believe I really had myself in the correct mental state.  My feet did hurt, so that part was right!  Since I don't have pain in any singular spot it's tough for them to diagnose the best direction to a cure.  Pain in your heel is treated differently than pain in your toes.  The pain I'm experiencing varies in type and strength.  My heel and ball of my feet have a dull burning ache.  My toes will have a tingling, electrical pain.  I will then get a shooting pain on the instep by the heel or a shooting pain starting on the outside of the ankle, above the heel, that runs around the heel and back up the inside.  They ask you to rate the pain on a scale of 1-10 (w/ 10 being unbearable).  I would say on average it's a 4-5 but last night, at our school function, while standing I could say it was at a 6-7.  I don't think I've gotten really beyond a 7 but perhaps my 7 is really a 5.  Who knows!

I tried to find some cool maps of the acupuncture meridians and you really have to know what you're looking for to identify something on the map.  I do have a better understanding of what the docs were talking about when they were reviewing me in advance.  Just google "acupuncture "spleen5"" and go from there.  Good fun!

If anyone has had any experiences with Acupuncture, please comment as I would love to hear about it.

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