Another Try at Acupuncture

Remember the negative experience I had with my first acupuncture treatment? I was reluctant to give it another try but recently bought a Living Social deal for a local place and thought it was only fair to try again.

I went to the Pearl Health Center in the Pearl District downtown. My acupuncturist was named Michelle and I liked her quite a bit. She was calming, understanding and friendly. She was also a runner so that was good to hear. We went over some of the things I wanted treated–my insomnia, anxiety and stress, plus the physical issues I’ve had with my IT Band and my sacrum (which I reinjured recently).

Unlike my first experience where it was a group setting, this was a private room. I was much more comfortable. She had me undress and wear a hospital gown and lay face down. There was dim light, relaxing music and she put a heat lamp near me to keep me warm. She put in the needles in and it was a comfortable, easy experience. There were only two spots that I FELT when she put the needles in and one was in my IT Band. Ouch.

She also put the Tens device on my sacrum (my lower back). It’s a nerve stimulation supposed to work out the kinks and it felt fantastic. It was like tiny electric shocks alternative with vibrations and tiny taps on my back. It felt so great. She left the room for about 40 minutes and I fell dead asleep. I don’t even remember falling asleep. She finished up the 90 minute session with stretching my lower back. She showed me a few new stretches that felt awesome and painful at the same time.

She also suggested that I try the Nike Myrtl Routine (a 12 step pelvic girdle stretch) stretches 3 times a week. I’m definitely going to check it out and incorporate what I can into my normal stretches. I will definitely take her advice because she’s a runner, and she said her sister is training for her fourth Ironman. I felt like she knew what she was talking about.

I got home, feeling groggy–like that post-massage fog–and made leftovers for dinner. Michael made guacamole to go with our dinner.

Over the weekend I had made some easy enchiladas with leftover ground turkey meat. I had two enchiladas left so I reheated that for our dinner. I’m glad we had leftovers because I felt so uninspired to fix something!

Inside the enchilada: ground turkey meat, black olives, black beans, cheese, onions. Yum! I love enchiladas and using leftovers is even better. I added a few chopped tomatoes leftover from the garden to the top.

After dinner we watched the latest episode of The Walking Dead and I played with Fat Kitty! He was on fire and full of energy! He made me laugh and I needed a good chuckle.

He is so cute I can’t take it. 🙂 Oh and I made him dance to “Pumped Up Kicks.” It was hilarious. Fat Kitty kinda looked like one of the zombies from the Thriller video. Michael teased me because apparently everyone makes their cats dance? I had never done it before. It cracked me up!

QUESTION: What is your experience with acupuncture?