Punctured for the Last Time

Last Friday, I went to my sixth and what I believe will be my final acupuncture treatment. I had very high hopes for this potential solution to my back pain, but unfortunately, there haven't been any notable improvements. I had originally decided to try at least a month of treatment before making a decision on whether to continue, and I ended up extending my trial period to six weeks just for good measure. For a couple of weeks during treatment, the sciatic pain in my legs intensified somewhat, and at first this seemed like a sign that maybe the nerve inflammation was pushing its way down and hopefully out of my body. Now I think that maybe it wasn't the acupuncture at all, but rather some extra nerve aggravation related to softball or some other activity. Either way, I'm totally bummed.

I really liked the naturopathic doctor who did my treatment, Dr. Khosh, who tried everything he could think of to improve my condition. He prescribed an all natural anti-inflammatory to take, and when that didn't have any effect, he gave me a free 2 week sample of another natural anti-inflammatory (bromelain, curcumin and quercitin mixed together) that was brand new. He and his brother create these homeopathic medicines under their own label through a friend's company in Wichita. Dr. Khosh said his friend told him that this brand new mixture of ingredients would be way too strong for most people and should only be used in hard to treat cases, but so far, I haven't noticed any change. I've only been taking it for a few days though, so there's definitely still potential for it to work!

The other new and crazy thing he tried on Friday was auricular therapy (ear acupuncture), which he tries when patients aren't responding to anything else. "Normal" ear acupuncture is kind of like reflexology of the ear, where the therapist inserts smaller acupuncture needles into different spots of the ear which correspond to different areas of the body. However, what Dr. Khosh did was a little unusual (as if ear acupuncture isn't unusual enough) because he used ear tacks instead of needles, which actually stay in for a few days. One of them has yet to come out! The idea is that the same spot that you would stimulate during regular ear acupuncture just gets stimulated for a longer period, since it takes anywhere from 1-4 days for the tack to be sort of rejected from your body (kind of like a splinter works its way out). Dr. Khosh said he was sticking the spot related to the thalamus, which apparently was supposed to prevent the relay of pain related information to other parts of my brain. The mere fact that I agreed to this rather freaky treatment without asking many questions gives you an idea of how desperate I am for relief!

Unfortunately, I haven't noticed a difference from the ear tacks either. They were merely slightly annoying, since every time I went to scratch my ear it was like stabbing myself! Okay, it wasn't really quite that bad, but it certainly didn't feel good. Here's a picture of the one that's still in my ear and the one that has already fallen out (which I found on my pillow this morning). Totally bizarre, I know. What can I say except that it was the act of a desperate woman!


So the next step in my journey towards back healing (once I'm finished with these anti- inflammatories) is to go see a different chiropractor in town who has been highly recommended by at least 5 different people. His name is Rob Jones, and he specializes in helping athletes to stay active. I like the idea that his goal is to keep you in the game, whereas both my medical doctor and my other chiropractor told me I just needed to cease and desist all sporting activity (which I actually did for six months, which didn't seem to help me at all). Dr. Jones uses a new and different method of chiropractic called Active Release. I'm looking forward to seeing him within the next couple of weeks!