I’ve been feeling a little stressed out lately. Actually, a lot stressed out and for quite a while. Over a year ago I started sleeping an average of 6-7 hours per night instead of 4-5 because I was feeling really crappy and guessed that the sleep deprivation had something to do with it. Eight months ago I started taking vitamins, including B12 to hopefully fix my deficiency and the weird symptoms. Four months ago I went cold turkey without caffeine. Three months ago I went to the endocrinologist for the very first time, even though I’ve had a thyroid problem for almost 20 years. I feel better, but not 100%.
When Norah was diagnosed with Graves Disease, one of the many things we did to try to help her was to take her for acupuncture (actually more like acupressure since she was so young). I really loved her acupuncturist, Robert, who is just awesome. I had a massage a couple of weeks ago (another attempt at stress relief) and the massage therapist knows Robert and said, “He seems like he can just look at you and know what’s going on.” When I first met Robert, I had to fill out a long questionnaire about Norah, and I commented that I had a lot of the symptoms on the questionnaire. He said, “All parents need acupuncture.” A couple weeks ago I finally decided to give it a try.
I showed up for my first appointment, not sure what to expect – Norah’s treatment was different from an adult’s. Robert had me sit in a sheet-covered recliner and then he checked my pulse in my left wrist and told me to stick out my tongue. When I did, he sat there peering at it until it started to freak me out. When I asked what my tongue was telling him, he asked me to stick it out again. After he took my pulse in my right wrist, he turned on the light and looked at my tongue again.
By that time I was really wondering what he saw on my tongue. It looks like a normal tongue to me. He explained that there’s a lot that he can tell from a tongue, pronounced mine “purplish with some cracking,” and said that it showed a weakness in my lungs. He asked if I get a lot of colds, and I said, “You’re going to say ‘I told you so,’ but every time I get a cold it turns into bronchitis and I can’t get rid of it. I go through several rounds of antibiotics every time.” He explained that when the lungs are weak, the liver sometimes overworks and results in tight tendons. He asked if my neck cracks a lot. Ok – now it’s getting weird. I carry all my stress in my neck and shoulders, and I crack my neck multiple times a day. He said that we need to work on some core stuff and then we can focus more on the stress if that’s still an issue. He was shocked at how little I used to sleep, and recommended that when I fall asleep while putting the kids to bed, I should stay asleep. I can’t say that I’ve been able to do that, but I have been trying to get 8 hours per night.
He told me to recline, and wiped an alcohol pad in a few spots on my arms and legs. I couldn’t really feel the needles going in, but sometimes when he adjusts them he literally strikes a nerve and I can feel it going right down my leg or arm. It doesn’t hurt, just feels kind of weird for that moment. He probably puts in about a dozen needles (maybe more – I’ll count next time) – in my arms, hands, ankles and right above my forehead. I asked him to put one in that would help me poop, and he obliged. The weird thing was, in my first two sessions I actually felt and heard gurgling in my digestive system and worried that maybe the results would be too immediate.
After all of the needles are in I’m left to sleep for 45 minutes or more. Other people sometimes come into the room to have their treatments so we’re all in there napping together. It costs $250 for 10 sessions so it’s well worth the price even for the immediate benefit of a nap in peace and quiet.
Since the pattern of my stress symptoms was several “bad days” followed by some days feeling normal, it’s hard to tell whether the acupuncture is helping yet. I haven’t had any bad days (and by “bad day” I mean feeling like crap and wanting to crawl back into bed) since I started, and hopefully I’ll continue to improve.
If you’re local and you want to give Robert a try, here’s a link to his website.