Needlework

One of the (many) problems with having what I can only delicately refer to as Lady Issues is that the treatments involve such fun as surgery, daily injections and repeated early morning ultrasounds.

So after a year of this non-stop fun and games, I decided to get off the medical merry-go-round for a while and go full Eastern healing. Started the yoga classes back up (hello, downward dog!). And started acupuncture.

Yes, I realize the irony in trading one set of needles for another.

This week is my 6th treatment. So what's it like being a human pincushion? Feels pretty darn good, actually. First of all, there really aren't that many needles at a time, plus they're verrry thin, plus the whole thing is happening while you're lying on a massage table, listening to soothing New Age music, smelling incense and doing absolutely, blissfully Nothing. Half the time I drift off to sleep. For all I know, I'm paying for a nap.

Does it work? Dunno. It's too early to say.

How does it work? Eastern Medicine practitioners say it realigns the flow of energy -- chi -- in your body. Western Medicine would say it's probably the placebo effect.

But Eastern Medicine also believes the mind and body are interconnected, inseparable. The mind is an integral part in healing the body. And what is the placebo effect? Feeling better because you think you're feeling better.

Me, I don't know which it is, and I don't care.

Here's what I know. I have a weekly appointment to participate in a process of turning myself over to healing, to something both outside and inside myself. While it could be said that prior medical treatments were also a process of healing outside myself, well there's a reason medicine -- astonishing as it often is -- is referred to as "clinical."

And the other thing? Even if it is all just a bunch of chakra-filled mumbo jumbo, I also get a half-hour plus every week with no obligation other than Doing Nothing on that table.

Powerful medicine indeed.