Acupuncture Alley

Feeling a bit better today, although I haven’t been able to start eating normal foods again yet. I actually considered trying to just go on Japanese baby food for a while (hoping it resembled apple sauce, like in the states), but after talking to my coworkers and realizing it was more of a porridge-like mush that you add water to (and apparently tastes like crap), I’m sticking to the bananas, crackers and hopefully a peanut butter sandwich today.

ANYWAYS, so I know I just came back from vacation and all, but I’ve been totally exhausted from being sick and all the planning for next year that has really culminated this week. So I decided to go out and do something I’ve been dying to try for a long time… ACUPUNCTURE!

A lot of people are skeptical about Chinese medicine, especially acupuncture and new age stuff, but part of me wanted to see what it was like and another part of me figured that – since insurance will cover part of it here anyways – what did I have to lose if I just went in to see if they would help with the cough (and sore shoulders, etc etc).

I went to this orthopedic doctor that a Japanese friend of mine recommended that I think Tam used to go to for her back. You don’t need an appointment, so I called ahead to see when they were open and went in around 6pm.

The check-in process was fairly straightforward and easy (or at least enough so that I was fine with the Japanese on my own). The nurse at the desk asked me what the problem was and then asked me the questions on the form, rather than giving it to me, which was awesome because it’s the kanji that gets me. Then I basically just read Japanese women’s magazines (which are mostly pictures of different fashions) until it was my turn to go in.

I didn’t actually take my whole shirt off, just stripped down to my camisole, which I was a little surprised about with acupuncture and the doctor I went to see spoke a little English. He asked me a lot of questions about being sick recently and then made sure I wanted the hari (needles) and not just a massage, which is apparently what Tam got. Then he showed me what the needles look like so I wouldn’t be scared (basically two thin and hollow plastic tubes with a long, need-sized pin sitting in the middle) and had me lay down. To my surprise, and delight, I got a massage for about 15 minutes while the doctor located the sore muscles that he would focus on with the needles. He had me lay on my side and I felt him put the plastic tube on my neck and sort of hit it with a hammer.
Then there was a slight pinch (that I could hardly feel), we’d wait a second, and then he’d do the next one down the row to my shoulders. About 10 minutes later, I was sitting up again and they put a self-adhesive menthol pad on my shoulders that gave both a strange hot and cold sensation simultaneously. And I just had to pay (an apparently reasonable fee since insurance covered a lot of it) and I was on my way home.

So did it work? Well, I’m not sure. I felt so mellow when I got home that it was almost like I was either on drugs (I've heard) or drugged, but it wore off later on and today I feel about the same if not a bit better. They were worried I’d have some pain today, but things seem totally normal.

Glad I tried it either way and I have more of the menthol patches, so maybe I'll stick with those before I go under the needles for a while... fun stuff.