Week 21: Pins and needles

I recently said to a friend I'd drink a potion of eye of newt if it made my legs heal.  So when a fellow tri-friend suggested I try acupunture, I thought "why not?".

I had been 8 years ago so I went back to the same doctor.  He is Chinese and speaks almost no English.  His daughter translates for him.  I was explaining my woes shen she pulled out a big plastic doll for me to point to.  Now I'm thinking...I could just point to the parts of my body where it hurts, but if he wants me to point to the plastic doll, ok.

I have flight or fight sydrome around needles and I will black out if I see one headed my way.  So I just laid back and closed my eyes while he put needles in my feet, knees, quads, and hands.  Lots of needles.  Maybe about 20?  Then he wheeled a cart in the room and hooked up electrodes to the needles.  At that point I was ok looking down at my body and seeing everything.  It looked like a horror movie from my childhood.  You know the one where the guy has all of the needles sticking out of his head???

The electricity in my quads had my muscles jumping.  It felt ok...no biggie.  But when he cranked up the juice to my ankle, I was happy he did understand "NO!".  There isn't much meat on your ankles, and that hurt way too much.  Turn it down!  So he did.

I think I laid there for about 45 minutes.  It was quite peaceful.  After they took everything off, I touched my ankle and pushed on it.  It was no longer painful to the touch but it still hurt when I walked.

Fast forward to today....my it band pain is gone.  My hips feel about 75% better.  My ankle is not really a whole lot better.  BUT I got some things out of it I did not expect.  I have been sleeping like a baby since I got it.  My brain seems very clear and alert and I can concentrate better.  And when I finished my bike ride on Sunday, my muscles hurt.  FINALLY, I have MUSCLE pain again instead of joint pain after a ride.  Subsequently, my workouts have been better so far this week...I have had a noticable amount more energy.

So I did schedule another visit for this Saturday.  Oh yeah...the eye of next?  He gave me some weird pills to take and I read the side of the box.  I'm pretty sure that was in there. ;)