I had my first acupuncture appointment today. I’ve been planning on doing this for months and finally found a place that was cheap, got good review and appeared professional.
I went to Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. It’s very friendly, including GLBT friendly. The forms had male, female and transgendered boxes to check. I talked about why I was there with the intern for a while, she checked my blood pressure and pulse in a couple different spots, looked at my tongue (should have asked why) and then left to consult with her supervisor about needle placement. I talked to her longer than I’ve talked to any doctor or intern on a first visit.
She came back, I laid down and she inserted needles in my legs, feet, wrists, sternum, abdomen and ears. After adjusting the needles and making sure I was comfortable, I was left to relax. I think she said she was gone for 20 minutes. The needles in my feet bothered me but I think that’s because I’m ticklish and that’s a sensitive area. The needles in my wrists bothered me at first because the insides of wrists are really sensitive but I eventually got over my sensitivity and realized they didn’t really hurt, I just wasn’t used to anything touching there.
We talked about herbs and I told her I would want to run them past my doctor first to make sure there wouldn’t be any interactions with my meds or heart problem. She pointed out my doctor probably wouldn’t be familiar with the herbs since they aren’t things Western doctors prescribe. He may have given me the OK for echinacea but that’s a pretty common supplement. So the intern offered to research interactions for me and get back to me during my next visit.
At this point, I’m open to taking herbal supplements because Western medicine hasn’t done a ton for me. Why not try something new? It would be nice if someday Eastern and Western healing were more integrated so my doctor would know about herbs and my HMO would pay for acupuncture. Actually in an ideal situation, HMO’s wouldn’t exist. Oh, I’m getting carried away in my healthcare utopia. :)
poke! poke poke!