I’ve been studying my fool head off, stuffing information into any free nook and cranny in my brain. My brain is now full. Unfortunately there is more info that needs to be stuffed in.

I got back to FL next week for the next session. That hasn’t had room to sink into my brain yet either. I’ve been using my acupuncture a bunch though!

My mother:

My mother had a bad cough and was hurting when she coughed. She said it was a specific place on her shoulder blade. When I looked at her back there was a bright red mark on her skin in the area where it hurt. That’s odd. So I put a needle above, below, left and right of it. The skin where the needles were turned the same bright red. Over the next few minutes the red area started to go back to normal color except for two red lines pointing at her shoulder. In a conversational tone she said, “It is really interesting how it moves.”
“How what moves?”
“The pain”

I made her explain herself. Turns out that the pain was gone from the shoulder blade and was moving up to her shoulder. Then it moved down to her elbow.  I told her that if an evil spirit dribbled out of her fingertips, I was starting an exorcism business. It got stuck at her elbow and we were super tired so I didn’t move the needles. She feels fine now.

Freckles:

Turns into a hedgehog when I try to needle her – feet tucked under her body. Body curled up to protect her legs. Any exposed back points that get needled makes her very very sad.

She has an icky ear. It isn’t a bacterial infection because I’ve cultured it. It won’t clear up with cleaning and topicals. Steroids don’t help. It stinks!!  Sometimes she cries if you touch it.

In the acupuncture course they talk a lot about herbs to compliment the therapy. I put her on an herbal formula called Ear Damp Heat. It took a while to get her to eat it consistently. Canned food is the key. She’s been getting a partial dose for a couple weeks. It still looks icky but the smell is gone!  It doesn’t hurt her either.

Real Patients:

I’m treating an 8 year old giant breed dog who had elbow surgery in 2009.  There were complications post-op. She’s never been totally right since. After her first treatment she was perkier than I’d ever seen her. The owner said people who didn’t know she had any acupuncture were commenting on how good she looked. She’s getting periodic treatment to keep her happy. She’ll never move totally normally but she’s happier.

I’ve used it a lot as an adjunct in other medical cases too. It is harder to tell in those cases what is actually helping. Â