Stick a Needle in My Eye

Wow!  I can't believe it's already 2012.  Time really does go faster the older you get.

For Christmas last year (2011) Georgia gave us the gift of coming into season; seems the girl is on a 7 month cycle.  That means that this week she is in standing heat and her father, Sam, is a wreck.  Fortunately, we don't allow the two to spend much time together anyway so we aren't also dealing with having to separate them.  Poor Sam knows she's here though and he paces around the house quietly whining.  It really only gets annoying when you are trying to sleep.  He's also spending a lot of time checking out Ginny & Moira to see if, just possibly, they might be interested in a little hanky panky.  Poor old man.

On and off for the last several years I've had Sam treated with acupuncture to help relieve his arthritis pain.  I've always been impressed with the results however, I'd never had acupuncture myself so I didn't have a good sense of what it actually felt like.

About a month ago, I started having pain in my right elbow.  It was annoying but not too terribly bad so I ignored it, as I often do when plagued by minor pain.  The pain got progressively worse though and I suddenly realized I was suffering from tendinitis in that elbow.  I have no idea how that happened but, there it was.

I tried all the usual treatments; alternating cold and heat, anti-inflammatories (Traumeel and Arnica), pain relief (Tylenol) and whining.  None were really working so I thought I'd give acupuncture a try.  Hey, it's worked for Sam!

During the actual treatments I've been surprised at some of the things that have happened; odd sensations in parts of my body that have no apparent connection to my elbow (burning in my left heel), waves of energy that feel almost like a chill passing over my entire body and yesterday, while I was concentrating on breathing correctly, I burst into uncontrollable sobs.  It makes me wonder how Sam feels when he has the needles in, especially when they are hooked up to electro-stimulation to enhance the effects!

I've had two acupuncture treatments so far and, while the elbow still hurts, the pain does seem to be getting better.  What I've really been impressed with though are the side effects.  I sleep better for at least two nights after a treatment, Moira is more relaxed for a couple days after I am treated, and my overall mood seems to be better too.  Basically, I'm just finding that I feel more balanced and calm.

I have another appointment next week - I hope we can scale back the frequency of appointments soon since they aren't inexpensive - and am looking forward to it.  Now that I have a personal understanding of how acupuncture feels and works I will be much more likely to use it for the dogs.