On Pins And Needles

I had my first Acupuncture session today. Since the back surgery, the nerve pain is much improved, but I still have some pretty awful trigger point muscle issues. So, I figured I’d give the needles a shot.

After about 30 minutes of discussing my health problems, the practitioner looked at my tongue. It’s purple and that’s a good sign, apparently. My “root” is still good. (I’m assuming this is a chi sort of thing).

Far East mysticism aside, picture me, if you will, with about 11 needles up my spine and in my shoulder. For the most part it didn’t hurt, though some of the worst spots in the rotator cuff did kinda suck when she tapped them in. What surprised me was when she hooked up a TENS system to the needles and shot some nice electrical stim through them, for about 15 minutes. After which she rubbed it down with some kind of balm (sans needles) and then ran an ultrasound over my shoulder on top of that.

Now, we had also discussed her treating the symptoms of my Interstitial Cystitis and the VVS, so when we were done, she flipped me over to my back and put 5 more needles in my stomach and 2 in my legs, close to my ankles. No stim for this, but another 15 minutes under the heat lamp.

I’m a bit sore after it all, but I’m going to try going twice a week for a few weeks and see where I’m at after that. If it gives me a little bit of relief I’ll be pretty happy.

This entry was posted in acupuncture, Interstitial Cystitis, Vestibulitis. Bookmark the permalink.

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