Acupuncture
For the last year I've had a chronic stomach problem. With the help of others, I've been able to nail down a description for it: it's like PMS, except year-round. Bloating, pain, cramps, etc., etc., a couple days a week or more.
I've been to doctors. The first didn't find anything, and gave me a prescription to expensive pills that did nothing (prevacid). The last did more tests (like sticking a camera down my throat, and parasite tests), and they revealed that I do not have syphilis. No signs of a cause for the stomachaches. He did find a pill that works pretty well though (zantac). But neither he nor I want me to take it every day for the rest of my life. He was hoping the problem would go away once I took zantac continuously for a month, but it didn't.
So... enough science. A friendly helpfully suggested I eat papaya seeds every day. They taste bad, so they must work! And they did - I went two full weeks without problems until yesterday.
I was at work today (now in SF) and barely able to function. One of my coworkers (no, not Asian) said she gone through an acupuncture regime and it helped with her headaches and stomachaches. Her acupuncturist (not Asian either) had just come back from maternity leave so I should call her! I did, and she doesn't take our insurance anymore. On to plan B.
Plan B is a one man shop in Chinatown, just 10-20 minutes from my office. The guy barely speaks English... between that and my barely-Mandarin, we managed. He did a few checks on me, lay me down, and started with two needles in the legs, then four around my stomach and two on my sides. They don't go in deep at all, so it's just a tiny prick when he pushes them in. But then he hooked electrodes to them! He turned up the juice and they zapped once a second. The ones in the leg made my muscles twitch, but the ones in my stomach felt much sharper, like a static electricity shock. Those hurt a bit. Then he left me there for half an hour, came back and took them out, and gave my stomach a hot herbal compress.
I'm supposed to do it twice a week for several weeks (no, didn't feel any immediate change today). And I'm in no way convinced that I have any qi in me that acupuncture could affect. But I'm that desperate, and it's kind of interesting. I wish I could talk more to the acupuncturist about what's going on. If anyone knows, please tell me.
I've been to doctors. The first didn't find anything, and gave me a prescription to expensive pills that did nothing (prevacid). The last did more tests (like sticking a camera down my throat, and parasite tests), and they revealed that I do not have syphilis. No signs of a cause for the stomachaches. He did find a pill that works pretty well though (zantac). But neither he nor I want me to take it every day for the rest of my life. He was hoping the problem would go away once I took zantac continuously for a month, but it didn't.
So... enough science. A friendly helpfully suggested I eat papaya seeds every day. They taste bad, so they must work! And they did - I went two full weeks without problems until yesterday.
I was at work today (now in SF) and barely able to function. One of my coworkers (no, not Asian) said she gone through an acupuncture regime and it helped with her headaches and stomachaches. Her acupuncturist (not Asian either) had just come back from maternity leave so I should call her! I did, and she doesn't take our insurance anymore. On to plan B.
Plan B is a one man shop in Chinatown, just 10-20 minutes from my office. The guy barely speaks English... between that and my barely-Mandarin, we managed. He did a few checks on me, lay me down, and started with two needles in the legs, then four around my stomach and two on my sides. They don't go in deep at all, so it's just a tiny prick when he pushes them in. But then he hooked electrodes to them! He turned up the juice and they zapped once a second. The ones in the leg made my muscles twitch, but the ones in my stomach felt much sharper, like a static electricity shock. Those hurt a bit. Then he left me there for half an hour, came back and took them out, and gave my stomach a hot herbal compress.
I'm supposed to do it twice a week for several weeks (no, didn't feel any immediate change today). And I'm in no way convinced that I have any qi in me that acupuncture could affect. But I'm that desperate, and it's kind of interesting. I wish I could talk more to the acupuncturist about what's going on. If anyone knows, please tell me.