Do-It-Yourself acupuncture, fun with pain, fun with drugs for pain

I went to the acupuncturist eight times. Seven of those times, I saw no improvement. After the eighth, my shoulders felt better for a few days, and I could only think of two possible explanations. One was the acupuncture; the other was that the pain had gotten so bad that I had stopped doing almost everything. To test the first theory, I went to the acupuncturist one last time and asked him to do whatever he had done on the previous visit. This treatment didn’t work the same magic, but I took careful note of where he stuck me, ordered a box of needles, and have been doing acupuncture on myself. There seems to be a slight improvement, but since I am experimenting with other self-help approaches, I can’t pin it down (ha) to the acupuncture.

One of the humorous aspects of pain itself and the narcotics that relieve it is that you become a complete idiot. Yesterday, I got out the dogs’ collars, leashes, and poop bags; put on my windbreaker and bicycle helmet; and went for a walk. Pretend you are taking an IQ test, and you are asked to identify something that doesn’t belong in the above sentence. Right! But I didn’t find the correct word or words until I was halfway down the street, at which point I sheepishly returned home and put on my cap. Also yesterday, I was frustrated by not being able to find my keys. After a few minutes of furious looking, I discovered them……in my hand.

2 comments:

All Consuming said...

I'm with you on this one. I do all I can to take the lowest dose of painkillers as they make me into the village idiot, they don't totally take away the pain, heaven forbid something would do that heh, they just make me care alot less about it. But the lack of control drives me mad. Thanks for the comments on 'cold but happy' have replied to it. :)

Me said...

Well, it confuses me seeing as your first comment is pretty much affirming everything I say. Your second comment seems to be disrespectful and intolerant of religious faith. I am sure it does not matter to those people the source of their suffering, but to simply discount the source is naive. If the cause is human, then there is something we can do to change it. Obviously you are not the kind of person who believes in changing the world for the better. You seem to be a bitter person that you would have to go out of your way to invalidate the feelings, beliefs, and thoughts of others. I for one believe in the validity of human experience and do not think any person deserves such disrespect as you have shown me, a complete stranger. I would never go out of my way to do that to another person no matter how badly I might disagree with them. I espouse a philosophy of tolerance and pluralism. You, obviously, do not. I do not have time to explain to you the phenomena of human suffering and the ways of life, but if you are so inclined and have the intellectual capacity, there are plenty of diverse philosophical and theological sources you could read. Please stay away from my blog if you can not have respect or anything constructive to say. Thank you and God bless. Pax.