Bruised

After telling my acupuncturist about the crappy week I had feeling exhausted ALL week and experiencing allergy/mild asthma throughout the week, and after looking at my charts for the past several months, she decided that the focus will be on building up my immune system. So instead of focusing primarily on the abdominal massage, she worked on my back. Instead of doing "skin rolls" which feels like pinching up my spine, she tried to work out the knot on my left shoulder. After doing that, she did cupping. She explained that this technique helps draw the toxins to the surface so that it may be easily released from the body. It was painful mainly because she primarily massaged my shoulder areas with it and parts of my back. My back is so purple, it scared dh. He had to take a picture of it. I had to explain to him that the bruising is normal after cupping. He had heard of it but never saw what it looks like right after. She assured me that the bruising should go away after a few days. I hope so. It does look rather scary, especially on my shoulders. It is also especially tender and kind of feels like a cut and a bad sunburn. It hurts to wear anything on my shoulders.

After working on my back, she did acupuncture on my front side (left ear, abdomen, both hands, both feet, and both legs). Once all the needles were inserted, she did moxibustion at different points on my body before finally placing some moxibustion material on the needles in my abdomen and lighting them. She asked if I felt the heat since lighting the moxibustion material would heat the needle. I didn't feel the heat, but I could feel something going on in my abdomen.

My next appointment is scheduled for next week Saturday. I'm hoping that this week will be better. With the exception of the bruising and painful shoulders, I feel pretty good. I wasn't as tired as I had been post-treatment the past three weeks, which was nice. She recommended that I continue taking the Chinese herbs but gave me a new one that is similar to the one she gave me last week, but this one is stronger. She also suggested that I exercise. When I asked her about the types of exercise I was doing before this (i.e. lifting free weights, running, and walking) she said that running is not good. Walking is okay and I really need to focus on movement and stretching to get my blood circulating, so yoga, tai chi, and qigong would be good forms of exercise for me. I'll have to look for some good DVDs to try.