me, a few needles and a lot less pain
tonight, for the first time ever, this little needle-phobic digidreamer went for acupuncture. can you believe it?
since i some how hurt myself last september i've had a fair amount of pain in my right shoulder. the x-rays, doctor visits and tests all turned up nothing so i was sent away with some pain meds and told if it didn't start feeling better in a couple weeks to go to a sports therapy doctor. well in the interest of saving money and not being told, again, there was nothing they could do i just decided to live with it.
flash forward...
a close friend of mine had been telling me about her acupuncture appointments and how it has fixed her back. she suggested i try it for my shoulder (and eventually my knee) so in the interest of trying new things, getting rid of some pain and conquering my fear of needles, i thought "what the hell" and went with her tonight for the first time.
in total i had 4 needles in my left hand, 1 in my left ankle, and 2 in my right shoulder. after 20 minutes of having the needles in under heat he finished up by doing cupping in 2 spots on my shoulder. essentially i had a suction cup on my shoulder in 2 places that after a few more needle pricks drew some blood out to remove all the "bad toxins" in that area.
(once they were in, i could barely feel them.)
(those red circles/dots are marker not blood related. he marked my pain pressure points ahead of time.)
surprisingly, it really didn't hurt at all and whether it's in my head or really true, i have significantly less pain in my shoulder now. i only have to put heat on it for 15 minutes before i go to bed now for the next couple days. who would have thunk it, right? me, voluntarily allowing someone to put needles in me. but i did it, and i have one more appointment on thursday. conquering my fears one step at a time.
if all goes well and i start to be more pain free i'm going to try it with my knee....
since i some how hurt myself last september i've had a fair amount of pain in my right shoulder. the x-rays, doctor visits and tests all turned up nothing so i was sent away with some pain meds and told if it didn't start feeling better in a couple weeks to go to a sports therapy doctor. well in the interest of saving money and not being told, again, there was nothing they could do i just decided to live with it.
flash forward...
a close friend of mine had been telling me about her acupuncture appointments and how it has fixed her back. she suggested i try it for my shoulder (and eventually my knee) so in the interest of trying new things, getting rid of some pain and conquering my fear of needles, i thought "what the hell" and went with her tonight for the first time.
in total i had 4 needles in my left hand, 1 in my left ankle, and 2 in my right shoulder. after 20 minutes of having the needles in under heat he finished up by doing cupping in 2 spots on my shoulder. essentially i had a suction cup on my shoulder in 2 places that after a few more needle pricks drew some blood out to remove all the "bad toxins" in that area.
(once they were in, i could barely feel them.)
(those red circles/dots are marker not blood related. he marked my pain pressure points ahead of time.)
surprisingly, it really didn't hurt at all and whether it's in my head or really true, i have significantly less pain in my shoulder now. i only have to put heat on it for 15 minutes before i go to bed now for the next couple days. who would have thunk it, right? me, voluntarily allowing someone to put needles in me. but i did it, and i have one more appointment on thursday. conquering my fears one step at a time.
if all goes well and i start to be more pain free i'm going to try it with my knee....