Cure for what ails you
This was a surprising cure (I thought) for trigeminal neuralgia.
As posting is new to me I am not sure of what to post on my site. I have looked at others and they are interesting. More interesting than me and my life it seems. There is one thing that took place yesterday though that kind of took me by surprise.
I have Trigeminal Neuralgia. It is a nerve condition that has no known cause, or cure for that matter. Once I looked it up in a medical dictionary and it was described as probably the most excruciating pain known. I can attest to that. But that’s not the story. It can be overcome with acupuncture. (When my regular doctor asked me if I was open to alternative treatment and I agreed, he sent me to an honest to gosh Chinese MD who also did acupuncture. The only question I asked Dr. Chen was if I had to believe in it to make it work. He smiled patted me on the shoulder assured me it did not matter if I believed or not, it would work. It did.) Anyway it comes back about every five to ten years and a few acupuncture sessions send it away again.
It came back and Dr. Chen had retired. I found a clinic at Emory that worked with alternative treatment and went there. A very nice and attractive Chinese lady who seemed to really know her stuff assured me she could help. After the session and about thirty needles she sent on my way cautioning me to stay out of the cold, eat no raw onions, garlic or Indian food with turmeric. Oh, and no alcohol. These foods slow the healing process. Once it goes away again I can go back to my debauchery.
After this session I had business in Florida so it would be two weeks until the next treatment. My business included golf and that day it was about forty degrees with a good wind. Ignoring the caution about cold I played. I felt it was OK as the night before I had a glass of wine so I figured that two sins were not really any worse than one. Well, that might not have been good because the pain came back pretty strong.
That’s only the background. Now for the real story; when I returned for my next treatment the doctor, I guess an acupuncturist is a sort of doctor, asked me how I was doing. I told her it was actually worse than it was prior to the first session. She looked surprised and said she didn’t believe how that could be. She asked me where I had gone. I told her Florida and she asked about the weather. I told her it was pretty cold and I had played golf. She admonished me and reminded me that I was not to go out in the cold. Then she asked me if I had eaten any raw onions, garlic or Indian food. No I had not. She asked me if I had any alcohol. I told her that I had just one small glass of wine. She looked shocked and admonished me that she told me to not go out in the cold and I did, and that she told me to drink no alcohol and I did. She then turned and said “You did not obey me, now take your pants off.” Well, now it was my turn to look shocked and surprised. My mind raced ahead. If this was going to be the punishment for not obeying maybe the treatment wasn’t so bad after all. I thought that if she gave me any more orders I would ignore them as well. I thought this might be a pretty good session - then wondered how the needles would fit in.
I looked at her, my mind still churning and repeated slowly, “I need to take my pants off?” She answered that in the first session the needles were concentrated on my upper body and in this session she would add my legs as that would help overcome the problem caused by drinking wine and playing golf in the cold. I have to say in spite of my imagination, I was relieved. I knew I would have had a hard time explaining this kind of medical procedure to LaVerne although I still wonder about how needles would fit in.
After about an hour with over forty needles sticking in my head, my face, my abdomen and my legs the pain actually abated quite a lot. In fact to the point that there is no pain unless I am touched in a couple of places on my face, or unless I go out into the cold.
Certainly the next treatment sessions will not be as interesting as this one but even so I look forward to completing them in order to send this stuff away for another five or ten years. I may not remember all the sessions but I will remember this one.
As posting is new to me I am not sure of what to post on my site. I have looked at others and they are interesting. More interesting than me and my life it seems. There is one thing that took place yesterday though that kind of took me by surprise.
I have Trigeminal Neuralgia. It is a nerve condition that has no known cause, or cure for that matter. Once I looked it up in a medical dictionary and it was described as probably the most excruciating pain known. I can attest to that. But that’s not the story. It can be overcome with acupuncture. (When my regular doctor asked me if I was open to alternative treatment and I agreed, he sent me to an honest to gosh Chinese MD who also did acupuncture. The only question I asked Dr. Chen was if I had to believe in it to make it work. He smiled patted me on the shoulder assured me it did not matter if I believed or not, it would work. It did.) Anyway it comes back about every five to ten years and a few acupuncture sessions send it away again.
It came back and Dr. Chen had retired. I found a clinic at Emory that worked with alternative treatment and went there. A very nice and attractive Chinese lady who seemed to really know her stuff assured me she could help. After the session and about thirty needles she sent on my way cautioning me to stay out of the cold, eat no raw onions, garlic or Indian food with turmeric. Oh, and no alcohol. These foods slow the healing process. Once it goes away again I can go back to my debauchery.
After this session I had business in Florida so it would be two weeks until the next treatment. My business included golf and that day it was about forty degrees with a good wind. Ignoring the caution about cold I played. I felt it was OK as the night before I had a glass of wine so I figured that two sins were not really any worse than one. Well, that might not have been good because the pain came back pretty strong.
That’s only the background. Now for the real story; when I returned for my next treatment the doctor, I guess an acupuncturist is a sort of doctor, asked me how I was doing. I told her it was actually worse than it was prior to the first session. She looked surprised and said she didn’t believe how that could be. She asked me where I had gone. I told her Florida and she asked about the weather. I told her it was pretty cold and I had played golf. She admonished me and reminded me that I was not to go out in the cold. Then she asked me if I had eaten any raw onions, garlic or Indian food. No I had not. She asked me if I had any alcohol. I told her that I had just one small glass of wine. She looked shocked and admonished me that she told me to not go out in the cold and I did, and that she told me to drink no alcohol and I did. She then turned and said “You did not obey me, now take your pants off.” Well, now it was my turn to look shocked and surprised. My mind raced ahead. If this was going to be the punishment for not obeying maybe the treatment wasn’t so bad after all. I thought that if she gave me any more orders I would ignore them as well. I thought this might be a pretty good session - then wondered how the needles would fit in.
I looked at her, my mind still churning and repeated slowly, “I need to take my pants off?” She answered that in the first session the needles were concentrated on my upper body and in this session she would add my legs as that would help overcome the problem caused by drinking wine and playing golf in the cold. I have to say in spite of my imagination, I was relieved. I knew I would have had a hard time explaining this kind of medical procedure to LaVerne although I still wonder about how needles would fit in.
After about an hour with over forty needles sticking in my head, my face, my abdomen and my legs the pain actually abated quite a lot. In fact to the point that there is no pain unless I am touched in a couple of places on my face, or unless I go out into the cold.
Certainly the next treatment sessions will not be as interesting as this one but even so I look forward to completing them in order to send this stuff away for another five or ten years. I may not remember all the sessions but I will remember this one.