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AMY SMITH LINTON

Acupuncture

8/25/2013

7 Comments

 
Picture
When first considering acupuncture, I vowed not to look. 

It's a habit: I never glance down when donating blood, and while I can stitch an open wound closed, I'd prefer never to do it again. 

Piercing makes me queasy. Talking about piercing makes me queasy.  Needles. Punctures. Ugh.

But of course, some five or six visits into acupuncture treatment for a long-standing shoulder injury, I really really really want to look. 

The Chinese doctor who punctures me is a bright woman with a PhD, whose accent moves the English words just a bit too fast and loose for me to follow her the first time she explains. Except of course, when she tells me, "Sorry! You not gonna like this."

Right she is. 

Having attached alligator clips with color-coded wires between a small device and -- I must assume -- the needles inserted into my arm, she begins running a mild electrical current. She asks if I can bear some more. 

I can.

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Taking deep breaths, focusing on relaxing the muscles that want to jump up and run, I soothe myself by contemplating electrical shockings of my past...These pulses sting, sure, but, it's not as bad as the shock from an electric fence or that faulty plug in a socket or the time I zapped myself across the kitchen trying to clean the fan over the stove. 

Still, the cycle continues for a long while, at precisely my sorest spots. There's a scent of burning herbs, rubbing alcohol, and the faint, regular tzeet, tzeet, tzeet of the machine at my elbow.

Curiosity, meet cat. Cat -- curiosity. 

I lift my head from the pillow and take a long look. 

A line of four or five thousand slim needles lead a meandering course from my shoulder to the base of my fingers. 

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They shine in the dimmed light of the treatment room like the spears of a massed diminutive army at the Thermopolis gate, like blasted trunks standing after a flash fire in the forest, like the spines of a porcupine.

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Gulp.

Second look: there are maybe 18 needles, set in pairs along the same pathway that is marked in red in the medical poster on the wall above me. I didn't feel the needles go in, and only sense them now when the electrical pulse squeezes the muscles along the way. Maybe muscles. Maybe nerves. Maybe chi. Chakras might be implicated. I don't know. And I am okay with this ignorance. 

I'm rarely okay with ignorance. Beyond reason to me is the comfort of research, data, trivial facts, theories, original sources. 

But for the little I know about acupuncture, let me counter with a separate and equal lack of understanding of the chemistry of aspirin or the architecture of my own ulna.

What I do know: in a week or two weeks, something will change. I'll be able to stretch this arm without this creeping heat of irritated nerves or tendons or chi or whatever it is that has been sending a jangling bolt of sensation -- radiating from this shoulder. I'll rotate my hands and stretch my wrists without wincing. I'll put fingers on the keyboard and type about it, not thinking about what hurts or how much.

7 Comments
George Albaugh link
8/26/2013 01:31:10 pm

After reading your account I think I'll continue to nurse my painful left shoulder (crashed and burned during a free-style practice session at the rink a month ago). My bride, the goodly Elisabeth, on the other hand, seems to thrive when being loaded up with hat pins. Swears by it. But not for moi--I'll chew off my arm first...

Reply
Amy
8/26/2013 01:44:40 pm

Hey George --
Freestyle went a little wild? Hope your shoulder feels better soon. Maybe some PT?
Good luck!

Reply
George Albaugh
8/26/2013 02:21:43 pm

Caught an edge doing a simple inside 3 turn. Went down hard. Don't think I broke anything. Might have a hairline fracture but now that it doesn't wake me up at night it doesn't bother me enough to do anything about it. Seems to be slowly resolving itself. I'll find out tomorrow when I drop in on Elisabeth's yoga class. I need more flexibility and core strength for jumps and spins. We'll see how the shoulder feels about the warrior position. And here I thought yoga was all about peace and serenity and stuff... Again, she who doesn't mind being a human pin cushion swears that yoga makes her feel good...

Reply
Amy
8/28/2013 09:51:22 am

Hope the yoga helped!

George A.
8/28/2013 10:26:35 am

Too early to tell--just one beginner's lesson. I liked it. Plan to take another lesson tomorrow since there's a lull both this week and next with lessons at the rink. From what I've seen so far it can't hurt. Yesterday's instructor didn't go too "new age" on me and, in turn, I corralled my ego and didn't try to be Mr. Over-achiever. At the end of the hour I felt like I'd done something but didn't feel worn out.

Today's public session at the rink was a mixed bag of working on edges, turns, half-rotational jumps and my current nemesis-- the two foot spin. Simple in concept. Six revs with a clean exit are required to pass. I've seen 5 revs once and 3.5 is more my current status. It'll happen.

Ta,
GPA

Reply
Amy
8/31/2013 01:25:20 am

George, your latest nemesis sounds to my ear like an off-scale dressage move. Only minus the horse. And on a blade. And on ice.
Hmmm. Might need to reconsider that likening.

Hope you're feeling better soon!

Reply
George A.
8/31/2013 04:23:48 am

Thanks. Went to the second yoga session. Discovered that I have real talent for this. When the lady said "empty your mind", I went straight to the head of the class! Elisabeth is so proud.




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