So that was acupuncture...
For the few of you who were curious, I got an acupuncture treatment today to help with my chronically fucked up kidneys. Dixie, my roommate, who has been an acupuncturist since before I was born, administered the treatment in our living room.
For the first treatment, she had me sitting up in a backless chair. I took off my shirt, and she marked each vertebra with a pen. She then showed me the needles-- they were thin and flimsy, like little horsehairs with metal caps. I got about ten of those in my back. Some definitely were more prominent than the others. While they didn't hurt in a way that say, getting a hypodermic needle hurts, I definitely felt a stinging pinch with a few, and some residual throbbing, while others barely registered.
She told me that that was a very surface cleansing treatment-- that the skin around the needle has a red reaction, and when that reaction fades (give or take 15 mins), the needles were ready to come out. My skin actually rejected a few of the needles-- three were pushed out and had to be reinserted. She said this is not common, but then again, it's my body's tendency to protect itself rather than accept anything foreign, so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing-- we'll just have to do the next one lying down. So I sat straight, bored, for about twelve minutes.
Then, things started to get weird. I got a little woozy. Then I got a little nauseated. Then I noticed a very dull buzzing in my left ear. And the lights were suddenly very, very bright, and spotty, and oh my god, if I don't lay down, I'm going to pass out. The needles came out.
She said that that's a fairly atypical reaction. Not unheard of-- she's seen football players pass out from that treatment-- but atypical, nonetheless. It has something to do, she said, with each of the needles being attached to a deep-tissue organ. My chi was moving around, but not in a way I'd recognize from exercise or meditation. It was rather a massive release of tension, which can be disorienting. She said that that's a good thing, so don't be worried.
Second treatment: a needle to the womb. Okay, right over the bladder area, right above the pubic bone. It was a deeper needle than the first set. I definitely felt that one, dammit. Eek. Luckily, the sting wore off very quickly. Third treatment: three needles right in the kidney area. The first two were completely painless. The third... well, I was in the middle of a sentence, and finished it with "*gasp* oh fuck!" Yeah, my left kidney seems to be the problem. Those needles stayed in for about ten minutes.
All in all, I don't feel much different, but Dixie says that I really shouldn't until tomorrow morning. This was all very basic stuff-- she wants to do something more intensive next week.
In the meanwhile-- water, water, cranberry, uva ursi, UTI Clear, water. I'm almost completely out of herbs, so that will be my Sunday morning mission when I'm out with my parents. And, as my mother places all of her stock in Western medicine, she did call today to yell at me for not going to the hospital. I told her it wasn't that bad just yet, and if it does get that bad, I'll at least go to a clinic.
But as for now, I'm going to bed after I have a mug of chamomile tea. Acupuncture makes a girl sleepy.
For the first treatment, she had me sitting up in a backless chair. I took off my shirt, and she marked each vertebra with a pen. She then showed me the needles-- they were thin and flimsy, like little horsehairs with metal caps. I got about ten of those in my back. Some definitely were more prominent than the others. While they didn't hurt in a way that say, getting a hypodermic needle hurts, I definitely felt a stinging pinch with a few, and some residual throbbing, while others barely registered.
She told me that that was a very surface cleansing treatment-- that the skin around the needle has a red reaction, and when that reaction fades (give or take 15 mins), the needles were ready to come out. My skin actually rejected a few of the needles-- three were pushed out and had to be reinserted. She said this is not common, but then again, it's my body's tendency to protect itself rather than accept anything foreign, so it wasn't necessarily a bad thing-- we'll just have to do the next one lying down. So I sat straight, bored, for about twelve minutes.
Then, things started to get weird. I got a little woozy. Then I got a little nauseated. Then I noticed a very dull buzzing in my left ear. And the lights were suddenly very, very bright, and spotty, and oh my god, if I don't lay down, I'm going to pass out. The needles came out.
She said that that's a fairly atypical reaction. Not unheard of-- she's seen football players pass out from that treatment-- but atypical, nonetheless. It has something to do, she said, with each of the needles being attached to a deep-tissue organ. My chi was moving around, but not in a way I'd recognize from exercise or meditation. It was rather a massive release of tension, which can be disorienting. She said that that's a good thing, so don't be worried.
Second treatment: a needle to the womb. Okay, right over the bladder area, right above the pubic bone. It was a deeper needle than the first set. I definitely felt that one, dammit. Eek. Luckily, the sting wore off very quickly. Third treatment: three needles right in the kidney area. The first two were completely painless. The third... well, I was in the middle of a sentence, and finished it with "*gasp* oh fuck!" Yeah, my left kidney seems to be the problem. Those needles stayed in for about ten minutes.
All in all, I don't feel much different, but Dixie says that I really shouldn't until tomorrow morning. This was all very basic stuff-- she wants to do something more intensive next week.
In the meanwhile-- water, water, cranberry, uva ursi, UTI Clear, water. I'm almost completely out of herbs, so that will be my Sunday morning mission when I'm out with my parents. And, as my mother places all of her stock in Western medicine, she did call today to yell at me for not going to the hospital. I told her it wasn't that bad just yet, and if it does get that bad, I'll at least go to a clinic.
But as for now, I'm going to bed after I have a mug of chamomile tea. Acupuncture makes a girl sleepy.