Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Human Pincushion

I've been dealing with plantar fasciitis ever since I was pregnant with Curly Girl. Sometimes it's so painful that I'd rather gnaw off my own foot than keep dealing with it. I've tried going to an orthopedic doctor who told me to do stretches (didn't work). I've taken tons of aspirin to deal with the pain (doesn't work). I tried taking medicine that the doctor prescribed for the pain and swelling (ended up with hives for 3 days!).

So today Hubby thought he was doing a good thing and set me up with an acupunturist. It was quite interesting. I'm usually really open minded when it comes to new experiences. I found the office. It seemed nice, clean and just like a doctor's office.

They took me back to a room with a table set up in the middle of the room and anatomy posters on the walls. There was soft Chinese music playing in the background and incense burning. I started talking with the acupuncturist who was a very nice soft spoken Chinese lady.

Of course, the first thing she says is that it's probably because of my weight. Well, no duh, I kind of knew that and I've been working on losing weight. Problem is that my feet hurt so bad that it hurts to exercise but I need to exercise so that I can lose the weight.

After we talked I hopped up on the table and laid back. She then proceeded to stick me with about 10-15 needles in each leg from the knee down. It didn't really hurt but it wasn't fun either. She then turned off the lights and told me that she'd be back in 20 minutes.

"Crap!" I thought. What am I going to do for 20 minutes? I thought about the book I'd brought with me that was sitting in my purse across the room. Except I couldn't get up and walk over to get it with needles sticking in my feet!

Finally it hit me! I sitting here in a quiet room with nobody yelling at me, climbing on me or asking me for stuff. I closed my eyes and just chilled and IT WAS GREAT!

Did it relieve the pain I feel in my feet every waking moment? Nope. I'm not sure if I'm going to go back. At $65 a pop twice a week I'm not sure that we could afford it.

I guess I'm just going to have to deal with it until our new insurance kicks in at Hubby's new job. It was nice to get away for a bit though.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

interesting as Ive always been curious about accupuncture.
how you feeling today? any better? different?

Melissa Martin said...

I still feel the same as I did before the treatment. It's probably something that needs to be done often before changes can be felt. The accupuncturist also gave me some Chinese herbal pills but I don't like to take things that I'm sure of.

new*me said...

I have it but it has gotten better since I lost weight. You are so brave!