Friday, February 14, 2020

Anxiety, Arthritis and Acupuncture
By Patricia White



Each New Year brings a new start or so we tell ourselves. A new year is no different from each new day. Humans, especially this one, always believe tomorrow will be bigger and better. It’s like erasing the big classroom blackboard once a year, once a week or once a day. The chalk dust is still in the air, but will soon settle somewhere, just as the things we try to erase from our lives and bodies. This dust just takes a little longer to settle out.

I had a snake-bit kind of year in 2019 in two big A words…. Arthritis and Anxiety. I started new meds a half  dozen times for each, stopped each a half  dozen times and cried two dozen times more because I just wasn’t getting the results I wanted, or the side effects were worse than the ailments, or it was too hot, too cold, too hard or just wasn’t in God’s time.

With all the new wild-child treatments on the horizon, it was time for me to step out there and test the waters. I have heard so much about CBD oil and that the folks who were taking it were all but walking on water after anointing their tongue with the oil of the sacred leaf. It took two stores before I found a lady who was knowledgeable enough to tell me exactly how many drops of which sacred oil I needed to achieve a state somewhere between ecstasy and relief. I didn’t want to feel like I was floating or give off an aura that something was funky with my soul. I just wanted relief, no side effects, nor to feel out of the ordinary, just good!

I took my little green bottle of CBD oil home and started using the drops immediately. Nothing happened. Damn. There’s always tomorrow. Next day, I went for my thirty-two-year cancer-free checkup. I was thinking about telling the Doc I had started taking CBD oil. I was worried she would not approve. When the nurse took my blood pressure and it was in the stroke zone, I knew I HAD to tell her. My mind was already racing to the moon that the one dose of drops was going to kill me via stroke. This is part of my problem. I worry too much about things that are never going to happen. The Doctor was thrilled that I was taking CBD. She praised it and said they had many patients achieving great results from Abraham to Zachariah. Wow, did I feel better. The Doctor also strongly suggested Acupuncture and gave me a brochure about a clinic they referred patients to and trusted.  I was on a roll! Did you notice, another A word?  Acupuncture.

I thought about the Acupuncture thing for a few days as I continued my CBD oil treatment. On day six, I woke up with no anxiety and my knees were an itsy bit better. I called for an Acupuncture appointment. An appointment was available the next day and I was ready. The sweetest Chinese lady, Ling,  greeted me and welcomed me to the world of ancient Chinese medicine. Without a fear in my fluffy old body, I crawled up on that table and welcomed an array of thin needles.  Ling placed one needle in the “happy spot” in the center of my forehead, two in my ear lobe, several in my low back, leg and my foot. About 20 in all. No pain. She then attached electrodes and turned on the juice, one needle at a time. When I felt a little sizzle, I let her know. It was all good, until she turned out the light and said she’d be stepping out for about 15 min. OK, then I got scared. What if my warm-up pants come sliding back up over my butt if I coughed or sneezed and all the needles come flying out, shocking me senseless? Here comes the anxiety again, then the tears. I am a hot mess and a weeping wuss. Not a freaking thing was hurting but I didn’t want to be left alone. She asked if I’d like to listen to some classical music. Yes, please. She asked if I’d like her to get my hubby from the waiting room. Yes, please. Moments later, my Phil came in, touched my head with the special energy he brings to me and I relaxed, trying not to look at my watch too often. Close to 15 minutes of being hooked up, I was ready for that needle in the happy spot in the middle of my forehead to come out. It wasn’t making me happy. It wasn’t hurting me, but I knew it was there. I could see it, even in the dimly lit room. I asked my hubs to take a picture so I could always remember this moment. 

The door opened. In walked the Ling. She asked how I was feeling. Good, thanks. She removed the needles as quickly as she put them in, and I was done. See you next week.  I felt so proud of myself. We are barely into February and I have tried two new things, and both have been painless, effortless and I think I am finally on the right path. I can do this. No more drugs!!! 

Soon as I righted myself on the table and Ling left the room, I sent a picture of myself with the needle in my forehead to my daughter. My phone rang almost immediately. “What happened, what hospital are you in?” I told her I was on the Acupuncture table; couldn’t she see the needle?  She said all she could see was me laying on a table and forgot I was going for this new treatment. Apples don’t fall far from the tree. We’re stopping on the way home to get her some CBD oil.