Last night I saw my physiatist for the first time in two months. “You look really bad,” he said, concerned. “What’s up?”
“Thanks for the compliment,” I said. I told him about the accident. He had me describe everything that got hit in the crash, and then manipulated my hands. “I think your wrists got jammed up.” He pulled them out until they were looser and stuck them with needles. Hidey ho!
I’d like to point out he was the first medical practitioner who actually laid hands or examined me in any depth since the accident. Even in the ER, when I told the doctor I thought my thumb was dislocated, she never actually examined my hand or wiggled my thumb — she just looked at the x-rays. (Also: my online medical records state I came in complaining of low back pain. How blunt chest trauma turned into that, I’m not sure. My back was the only thing I didn’t hurt, and there was no back x-ray. Best healthcare in the world!)
Anyway, the doc said my neck was a little tight, and so were my upper back muscles. “More than usual,” he said. So he stuck me there with a bunch of acupuncture needles (some of which hit a nerve and really hurt), and when he was done, I had more range of motion.
That’s what I like about acupuncture. Done!
Acupuncture is phenomenal!
i’ll attest to that too Ann.
My 5 year old pit-bull mix, went full speed after a ball I threw for him to fetch one day and came up lame – couldn’t put any weight on his back leg (knee – torn acl). Took him to the vet he’d been to as a baby and she said we could go with surgery for $3k, but it would still require extensive physical therapy. When I said I didn’t have that kind of money, she suggested the slower method of Chinese medicine, acupuncture and swim therapy. It worked, and after a year he was as close to 100% as he could be. I thought one had to believe that acupuncture would work before it actually did (placebo effect), but since dogs don’t believe our stories, it just worked.