Acupuncture Works

Last week I made the appointment to try acupuncture for the first time, and boy am I ever glad that I did. Then Monday night I wrenched out my lower back trying to pick up an Evil Genius that fell asleep in the wrong place. That hurt. so bad. all week. I did make it to swim practice Monday at noon, got in 4000 yards, and I haven't been able to do a darn thing since. No yoga, no pushups, no swim/bike/run.  Hell most days I could barely stand.

on the table

Thank goodness I found Essential Wellness Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine on google. The office is very close to my home and office and the rates seemed affordable, so I booked an appointment for Thursday afternoon. I was a bit nervous, not gonna lie there. I didn't expect it to hurt but also thought it might be a giant waste of time. Boy was I wrong.

The doc was great, he listened to all of my whining about my foot and back and then started sticking needles into me. At first he tapped the needle through the skin, then pushed it another half an inch deeper into the muscle. Then there was some kind of battery packed hooked up for electro-stim. There was a heat lamp involved. It took about 20 minutes, I may have fallen asleep.

me back!

He hit all the right spots

this looks insane

Afterwards, he did some massage on my legs that was nice, and really made me realize how tight my hamstrings are. Then I tried to stand up.

Fun fact, muscle stimulation releases something like toxins. Once those toxins are released, they have to be flushed out. So I'm using the term "stand up" pretty loosely there. I could barely walk. But I knew the release was a good thing. One of the benefits of acupuncture is increased recovery time so I knew my lower back hurting bad at the time was going to mean some extra water that night and it would finally feel better in the morning. 

Sure enough, I was right. I walked out of there with no foot pain, and the next morning I had no back pain. It was pretty magical.

Foot pain came back by Sunday, but definitely not as bad as it was before. He said it would take 1-4 treatments, and if it was a muscular problem it would be more effective. If it was a tendon problem, not so much. So I'm hopeful that it is actually muscular and this will hold up. Still going to take another week before I try running again, but I will be able to swim and get back on the yoga mat again tomorrow. And that is fantastic.

I tried taking a few pictures while I was upside down on the table and it was pretty horrible/funny

Not too bad, really

where did all those gray hairs come from?