For some reason I was very sensitive to the needles yesterday. Almost all of them hurt when she put them into my body. She’s putting the needles in roughly the same places, but they gave me varying levels of pain when inserted.

After all the needles were in place my body became extremely relaxed and it felt as though my body wasn’t there (nice feeling). I drifted off to sleep for about 15 to 20 minutes and then she came back and removed the needles.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was that I developed a small bruise near my right ear after the last session. She told me it was because she had placed a number of needles in a small area. I didn’t even notice the brusing until my fiance showed me.

I’m going once a week now and I’m still taking the herbs she sold to me. I haven’t really noticed much of a difference since starting the sessions, but I understand that this type of treatment may not produce any noticeable changes for sometime. The other thing is that she is treating me to strengthen my immune system and I suppose not getting sick would be the result I’m looking for.

At the beginning my acupuncturist told me that my liver and spleen were not in harmony and as a result my body was producing a lot of phlegm. I stay away from diary 99% of the time and I don’t believe I’m allegeric to anything either, but I still suffered from mild sinus congestion in the morning.

I’ve got to tell you that the congestion is gone! This fact didn’t hit me until several days ago while I was in the shower. Normally I’ll give a quick blow to clear out anything in my nose and everyday that I’ve done this for years I’ll usually have a little something to show for the effort. But for the past several days nothing! Not one bit of snot.

Another benefit I’ve noticed is that my mouth isn’t dried out in the morning. It doesn’t have that nasty coating either! I’m thinking that since my nasal passages are clear during the night when I sleep that my mouth doesn’t need to open to get air into my lungs. Bonus!

I’m still experiencing a slight swelling/pressure around my ears along my neck. The feeling has become a pain in the neck (that’s punny) and I think I’m going to try a Claratin-D (as recommended by by doctor) to clear up the congestion.

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.