Acupuncture!

So after weeks of migraines, a co-worker of mine suggested I try acupuncture. This is something I've been thinking about for a while for my migraines, but due to the cost I had continued to put it off. Being pregnant puts a number of limitations on how you can treat anything and therefore my migraine treatment is obviously extremely limited -- and somewhat risky. It's not fun to be in the ER waiting for a shot of something similar to morphine and googling the effects on the baby inside of me. Sometimes I wish my data phone was never invented. yikes! Alas, the benefits of the shot outweighed the risk and I had to do it. My blood pressure was high from the pain and it needed to be brought down since the blood pressure is actually more risky than the medicine!

Anyway, back to acupuncture. I decided to go ahead and move forward with the acupuncture. It seems safe enough, and at this point I'm ready to try just about anything. Luckily, since my trip to the ER last Thursday I have no had a migraines since (KNOCK ON WOOD!!). I'm waiting. Go ahead and knock, and then you can keep reading. :-)

So I went for my very first appointment yesterday.

It was completely weird to be honest! Jenni (my acupuncturist) asked me a ton of questions and then felt the back of my neck and looked at my tongue. She said according to my tongue I’m “pretty healthy” I found that to be interesting! She then had me lay down, face down, on the table (which by the way was super uncomfortable with my belly. I had to keep adjusting so I wasn’t lying directly flat. Baby B does not like being smashed!!). Then she asked me if I wanted to see the needles and I said no. I had a nice picture in my head of how tiny the needles were - and if I was wrong I didn't want to know.  She then started feeling different places on my back and putting the needles in which honestly just felt like someone kind of snapping their finger against my skin and even with it in, the sensation was completely gone. She put a bunch in my neck and along my shoulder blades and down a little further on my back (where she said I was showing signs of digestive problems). She put one in each inside of my ankles (apparently to help with sleep), and I even had one directly on the crown of my head!! She left them in for about 30 minutes, and for the first ten I was spinning so severe I could tell I was spinning counter clockwise. I had to keep my eyes open and keep staring at the ground in order to keep my bearings about me! She came in and adjusted the needles and that stopped. I was dizzy again after I got up but other than that I can’t say I feel any different. She did say that 90% of people respond to it, and we will know in just 2-3 treatments if it is helping – which is good considering it costs a pretty penny!