On Pins and Needles: My First Visit to the Acupuncturist

This isn't really my right foot--but it IS my right foot that's bothering me. Which is why I decided to give acupuncture a try.

A couple of years ago, I began experiencing pain in my foot. Turns out the bone that connects to my big toe is too long. Now that I'm old and decrepit, my tendons and ligaments are stretching, and it's all working together to occasionally cause pain when I walk. I've had cortisone shots in the joint, and that helps temporarily. I've also seen 2 different podiatrists, but they were both disasters and caused more problems than they were worth! Also threw out most of my old shoes and bought new ones that better fit my old, decrepit feet.

But the problem flared up again recently, so to acupuncturist I went. I don't know if it works, but it certainly couldn't hurt to try. According to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncturists: In the past 2,000 years, more people have been successfully treated with acupuncture than with all other health modalities combined."

So there! Better option than surgery, for sure. In fact, I'm determined to try every alternative out there and to manage the challenge as best I can, only choosing surgery as a last resort!

I describe my problem to the acupuncturist, and then she describes how she can help. She makes a point to say that acupuncture will not cure my problem, but it can increase blood flow to help with pain and inflammation. Sounds great. So I lie down on the bed, and she proceed to place a total of 12 needles in me, mostly in my right foot but also some up and down the outside of both legs. She says this will help with balancing the energy and blood flow and release problems in the legs caused by overcompensating for my foot pain. One special needle is reserved for the center of my head, my crown chakra, to help with relaxation. She puts on some wonderful music, turns the lights down low and leaves me alone for 20 minutes, checking on me once to flick the needles and see how I'm doing.

Afterwards, I didn't feel any immediate change, although my foot did begin to feel better over the course of the next few days, which could've been unrelated to the acupuncture. But the doctor said to return for a few follow-up visits in order to get the most benefit from the practice. I'll give it another try or two next week to see if I can tell any improvements. Spending 20 minutes lying quietly on a table--even with needles stuck into my body--beats the hell out of sawing my toe bone in half and weeks of pain and recuperation!