Getting Stuck

I have this blood condition that causes my bone marrow to produce too many platelets and red blood cells, which might sound like a good thing but is really a bad thing.  For one, too much blood makes too much thick blood which makes a stroke, G-d forbid.  Since being identified a few years back, my condition has been monitored regularly, and  it appears that my platelet numbers are rising.

I can reverse the disease's course by taking a medicine with a list of side effects I'd only wish on Hitler and his friends.  So my husband and I searched the web for alternative procedures and came up with acupuncture.  After my last blood test proved discouraging, I made an appointment at the local acupuncture school for a consultation.  It's like going to a dental school to have your mouth fixed - the real dentist tells the trainee what to do and you just sit there and hope for the best.

After my initial interview (it appears my yin is in bad shape and my spleen along with it), I got into a hospital gown and laid down on the examining table.  The doctor, with her interns around her, began her examination.  She wanted to know if pressing various parts of my stomach hurt.  Well, yes, it pretty much all hurt.  I made a mental note to go to the bathroom before doing this again.

The doctor and her students conferred, I believe in Chinese, and decided on my course of therapy.  I would need at least 4 or more procedures, which involves sticking needles everywhere, including my head.  We're talking hat pin needles, and it hurt.  I thought acupuncture didn't hurt, but it does.  The pain passes, of course, but it hurt.

After being stuck in my feet, legs, stomach, hands, arms, chest and head, I had to lay still for 30 minutes.  Well, don't you know what happens when you are told not to move for 30 minutes?  Everything begins to itch, of course.  But with the lights out, I did my best to relax.

Afterwards, with all the multitude of needles removed, I was asked if I felt better.  Not really.  Well, maybe I'll feel better in the morning, they told me.  The truth is, the only alternative I have to this alternative is a leukemia medicine that can bring on the curse with the cure, so I'll be back for future treatments.  I don't know what G-d has in store for me, but I thank Him for making all of us different, with different strengths and  takes on what the body needs.

Diversity, I love it!