Acupuncture

So a little description of my first acupuncture session tonight at the NE School of Acupuncture in Watertown - for anyone interested.

I arrived early to complete all their paperwork, disclaimers, health history, scary descriptions of side effects, etc. At about 7:50 I met my student/intern Anson (?) a dweeby professorial looking guy about my age (turns out he was formerly in manufacturing - made hinges for laptops - woo hoo).. He proceeded to grill me in excruciating (and sometime embarassing) detail about my health history - waaay too much detail about my (long gone) periods, my aches, my pains, my sleep habits, my "regularity", and on and on for the better part of an hour. The guy had no sense of humor... He explained that I was getting Japanese (huh?) not Chinese treatment, more because of the timing of when I came in than any other reason.

They learn and practice both, but if I switch to Chinese, I'm told that the "intake" would be another hour of questions all over again... nooooooo....And I'd probably have to tell them I was born in the year of the Pig. Or was it the Rat?

Finally, I lay down on the table and he tapped and poked most of my body - getting a little more personal than I'm used to from a man I have just met. Then he went out to speak to his Supervisor (kind of like when you buy a car...) and came back in with a Kathy Bates look-alike ( I admit my glasses were off at that point) who repeated some of his various palpitations (and was a little more personable) for awhile longer, while mumbling various things to him like... "hmmm... yes.. kidneys."

Then -- the needles... he inserted one above each wrist, and one in each foot, and left me alone for about 10 minutes ( that's the hardest part for me -- lying still in a room alone for 10 minutes!). I was afraid to move but i never felt a thing.

When he came back, he stuck tiny silver ball bearings in each of my ears, and said to keep them there for 5 days. I signed a paper detailing all the ramifications of having tiny silver ball bearings in my ears, and then I was done.

When I came out, I asked the receptionist, a very nice woman, if they had anything on Monday, my day off, since I really didn't want to wait a whole week for a "real" session, and we discussed aforementioned embarassing questions - she asked if perhaps I'd prefer a woman...I said yes.

so in the meantime, I can press my ears for possible pain relief... or so they say....

phyllis

aka "she who pays for needles"