yesterday i got to acupuncture and mo asked me if i was feeling brave about acupuncture or not. i told her i was, in fact, and had been thinking about that needle in the top of my head that everyone tells me is so great.
so she cleaned off the spot and my hands started to sweat, she rubbed her fingers over my head to find exactly where it should go and i flapped my hands and feet around a bit, and she stuck the needle in and i froze. everyone describes this calming feeling spreading over you from that point, but all i could feel was a NEEDLE in MY HEAD!
she has this bocci bocci (and i’m sure i’m spelling that wrong) thing that gives little electrical pulses to the acupuncture points. it looks like a pen and she’ll use it instead of a needle sometimes (for me, lots of times). so she took off my socks and did a round of bocci bocci on my legs and then on my arms, then did the whole thing again, and ever clicked on my ear and forehead just for good measure.
it helped, but i was still tense. i could tell her i was better and would be ok. she ran her fingers over my forehead to relax me more (after asking if it was ok for her to be so close to the needle). then she had to go take care of her other patients.
i managed to further calm down and would slip in and out of sleep. this isn’t uncommon for me with “intense” relaxation points. i’ll start to fall asleep, but can’t really relax so i wake back up again. when she removed it i finally relaxed and she congratulated me and i really did feel proud of myself.
i called hamster_grrl on the way home and had a good long catch up call then went to sleep early to catch up on what i missed monday and tuesday nights.
this morning i noticed some soreness in my back and shoulder especially when i take a deep breath. i guess i was holding myself even more tensely than i realized last night. or… the relaxation part of the treatment really did work. i’m sure i’m not the only one who sometimes feels strangely sore after a good massage, when those muscles all finally let go of what they’ve been holding on to.
it’s a nice reminder of the progress i’m making.
