1st Treatment

I just got back from my first acupuncture treatment. Paula has me loaded down with notes, pamphlets, and diagrams but I think it'll take me a bit of time to digest it all so I'm just going to focus on the treatment for now.

I have had chronic lower back pain with sciatica and peripheral neuropathy for some time, so I thought they would be a good thing to experiment with for my first acupuncture experience. Paula explained that these issues were caused by problems along the kidney and bladder meridian (meridians are always paired) and so she used a treatment that used acupressure points along those lines.

I am not sure what I was expecting as a result of the treatment, but the effect was not immediately apparent. The treatment itself was surprisingly relaxing (for something that requires needles to be stuck into your body) and caused very little pain. During the treatment I became acutely aware of my body -- my breathing, heartbeat, and blood flow seemed more apparent than normal. After the acupuncture, she also did some cupping therapy, moving the cups around to create a massage-like effect. It felt great, like a massage that got directly into the muscles underneath my skin (which sounds really creepy now that I write it, but the feeling was wonderful).

The most pronounced effect was a relaxed calm that I experienced immediately after (and which I still have an hour and a half later as I write this). My fingers and hands also feel less pain than normal and my back feels great (though a good massage will do that too). Of course, this may just be in my head, but I am realizing the physical manifestation of what I expected to happen may be part of the point of the mind/body experience too. Paula says the full effect may not be apparent immediately, so I hope to have more to report on the actual feelings a bit later.

The plan is to go through three treatments. Paula says three treatments should be enough to get the full experience and afterwards I'll be able to make a judgement on what acupuncture can do.