My First Acupuncture Session
Well, as you know I’ve been diagnosed with a Melanoma (serious skin cancer) on my face. I’ve always wanted to try acupuncture and in looking for ways to be proactive about improving my immune system to combat the skin cancer I decided to give it a try.
Upon my arrival I had to fill out my health history and go through the obligatory paperwork. After this, I sat with the doctor (a very nice Asian lady) and she asked me more questions and looked me over. She looked at my eye color, nails and tongue. She was probably looking at other things as well, but I didn’t notice.
After the examination she told me that my liver and spleen were not working right and they were producing a lot of phlegm. Now, I’m not sure if she actually meant phlegm or that the word(s) she was trying to use in explaining what was going on didn’t translate well into english and she just used it to get her point across.
Now, after about a half and hour of talking it was time to get poked with needles. I took my shoes and socks off and laid face up on what looked to be a massage table. I pulled my pant legs up around my knees and my shirt up to my neck. She said a small prayer and then began.
She started with my right ear and put five needles in various locations. A couple of them gave me a small bit of pain, but overall it was painless. She then placed a needle around my clavicle and then one at my solar plexus and WHAMO!!! Big time pain and my chest contracted very rapidly. I felt as if the air was knocked out of me and I couldn’t breathe for several seconds. Everything subsided and was back to normal in about 30 seconds. Apparently the solar plexus (bottom of sternum area) is a very powerful point and is also where your 3rd chakra is located.
She proceeded to place more needles into my hands (one needle per hand and they were placed in the webbing in between my thumb and fore finger) my calves (near my shins) and in my feet. I fell asleep for 20 minutes and she came back and woke me up. She removed the needles without incident and I got dressed.
She recommended some Chinese herbs to help with my issues and the names are interesting so I thought I’d share them with you. She gave me three differents pills. The first is called Soothing Liver which I’m guessing is to help me with my liver. The second is called Rising Courage which I’m not sure what it does specifically. And the last one is in Chinese so I don’t know what it’s doing for me either.
As I left the office I did notice that I was very relaxed and somewhat sleepy. I live close by (5 minutes) so my drive was short and when I got home I took a nap.
Well sports fans, that’s was my first experience. Not bad. Nothing out of the ordinary happened to me other than the solar plexus incident. I’m going again in a couple of days so I’ll keep you posted.
May 17th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Diagnosis in Chinese medicine doesn’t mean the same thing as it does in western medicine. When you were told your liver and spleen were not working right, it doesn’t necessarily mean there is anything physically wrong with the organs. However, by Chinese thinking, the chi energy flowing through the liver and spleen meridians might be stagnated or depleted.
May 18th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Bob,
Right, I agree with you. I appreciate the comment though as it confirms my own thinking.