Acupuncture - My First Visit

I had my first acupuncture visit last Tuesday and it was very enlightening.  For the first time I had significant pain relief in my 25 year history of migraine without the use of pain killers.  I have been dealing with chronic migraine for at least two years now and have been to urgent care numerous times with partial or no pain relief.  I was both amazed and uplifted.  This is how it all went.

A year ago one of my neurologists had given me a referral to receive Botox treatment and to attend a chronic pain management course.  He neglected to tell me that he also put a referral in for acupuncture.  So, I proceeded with the Botox and started the chronic pain class.  I wasn't seeing any results from the Botox, but the class provided me with better coping skills and I learned how to properly breathe and how to meditate which helps very much.  I was still, however, experiencing daily migraine attacks; some not as severe as others yet it was still daily.

So I decided to request a referral to see an acupuncturist in my area.  I have Kaiser Permanente as my insurance and if you don't already know about them, they have their own medical centers where everything is in house - laboratory, radiology, pharmacy, specialists, etc.  So naturally they wanted to send me over an hour to their one center in my area that has alternative medicine.  That was not an option for me due to the fact that driving long distances gives me migraines.  As I expected, they denied my request and thus started the appeal process.  So I plead my case and after a month I received the referral.  The catch is that I have to pay up front for the visits and have Kaiser reimburse me.  That will take thirty days for each reimbursement.  We'll see how that goes...

So, I made my appointment and was very excited to see Melanie.  Upon my arrival, Melanie had me fill out a medical history form along with others and we proceeded to go through every aspect of my life;  mental, physical and emotional.  That took about thirty minutes.  Then she took a look at my tongue which she said was scalloped, dry and white.  Then she checked three pulses on each wrist.  Acupuncture pulses are a qualitative reflection of the six major energy systems of the body. They are taken on both wrists in three locations. The information obtained goes far beyond the heart rate information obtained by conventional Western medicine pulse taking.  After that, I laid down and she started to insert the acupuncture needles.  At this time, my pain level was at around 5.  She placed a total of nineteen needles in the area of my feet, legs, hands, arms, stomach, and head.  Because the right side of the body affects the left and the majority of my migraines are on the left side of my head, the needle inserted on the right side of my body hurt a little more than the ones put on the left.  Also, the needle that was placed on the top of my head made me feel a tingling and warmth throughout my whole body.  It also relaxed me tremendously.  So much, that I almost fell asleep!

I stayed like this for about 40 minutes and gradually felt the pain decrease.  By the time the forty minutes was up my pain level was at one.  Miraculous!!  This has never happened to me before and I was really shocked and excited about it.  The pain stayed at bay for most of the day, until I had to go out in the heat and humidity later on in the day to take my son to an appointment.  But I was still very optimistic about what I just experienced.  Melanie said that I have a spleen chi deficiency and that the treatments will focus mainly on treating the spleen (not the organ itself but what it represents) and getting my chi back in balance.

So, since that appointment I've experienced at least three migraines that were severe but it was only one treatment and it takes at least five or six treatments before the symptoms are controlled and the body put back in balance.  I return to see Melanie on Thursday and am looking forward to it.  I will keep everyone posted on how each treatment goes.

Looking up and feeling blessed.