Sunday, August 21, 2005

Acu-caCHU!

Can you imagine, the doc sticken the needle in your back and sneezing. Ewwwe, I shudder. “Ooops, I wasn't supposed to go that deep. Ha, well, come back next week and I'll do it for free, :-P as it is, I need to go get my magnet, be right back. NURSE!”

:-) oh how my mind works, ... so, did anyone figure out the answer to my question? I was disappointed that no one mentioned it if they did. If you are reading this and have not read Acu-PUNCTURE!!! please do so first. It's just below this message.

Look...up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a frog. A FROG??? Not bird nor plane nor even frog, it's just little old me ... Under Dog! Ah the North American love affair with the underdog. It started when we were kids!

Ok, where was I? Yes, so I went back in again. This time I knew a little more of what to expect. Or so I thought. After a most wonderful electric shock massage, (your welcome Darren :-), the doc comes in to stick me with needles.

Now, I learned a long long time ago that if you tense up when you're getting a shot it hurts 5-10 worse. Interesting pain study I saw recently. If you believe something is going to be painful, it is. The researches told half of their guinea pigs that the electric shock they would receive would be slightly painful at first and would be increased in pain levels incrementally. They were told that the study was to determine the pain thresh-hold of the avg. person. The other half of the guinea pigs were told that the electric stimulus would not be painful hardly at all. Obviously, the study was to determine how much our preconceived ideas affect our reactions. Well, you guessed it, there was a dramatic difference between the two groups. It was actually pretty funny watching the first group of guinea pigs react. Talk about over reacting. But the thing is, they were actually experiencing real pain. The latter group though, at the same levels experienced discomfort but not pain.

So, there you have it. What most of us have known to be true for many years, has been scientifically verified. Where does one get a job like that. Man, if I would have only known that such opportunities existed as a kid, I could have started young. :-) Imagine what I could have learned with my family's help. Ahhhahahahaha evil grin. Or university! Man I missed out! I could have done all sorts of cool things for grades. In some ways, it's kinda like bein a youth pastor :-) hmmmm, I need to hang out and play for a living, hmmmmmm (please note that most youth pastors are clinically insane and well, it's the only thing that keeps us from going crazy as we watch these kids we dearly care about making many painful mistakes.) I still pray for those kids. On the other side though, are the wonderful experiences of watching kids grow and learn and go for God. I don't think there is anything more wonderful. But, this blog is not about pastoring or doing many cool experiments on people heh heh heh :-P

So, knowing that tensing up only makes things worse and predetermined pain ideas vastly affect the outcome, I relax myself when I'm getting a shot or having blood drawn. I actually began to find it, not entertaining, but really interesting. The wildest thing I've ever watched was when the nurse jammed an I.V. in my hand. Talk about an intimidating looking device. Ahhhhhhhhhhh! So, mental switch, wow that thing looks pretty cool. It's v shaped and slides right in thereee, ah, over, thanks. lol

So back to my original story. I'm lying on the table and the doc starts sticking me with those needles. Ouch, oh ya, relax, uh ahhhh, relax, ok, better, relax, untense, OWWWWWWWEEEEEEE! What the HECK WAS THAT!!!!!!!! Man! when he stuck me with the one needle, I actually arched up off the table and writhed around, and he kept right on going! twisting, turning. And he LAUGHED!!! Ooooo, that's not good. grrrrrr. When the doc sticks the needle in, the final thing is to twist it left and right a few times. Man did that hurt. wow. Twernt no little needle, I think he stuck a hook in me and went fishing!

Well, as quickly as it started it was over, I sorta relaxed again and he was on to the next needle and it hurt too, not as bad, just because I was tensed up. I can't believe he laughed. I think he needs a needle.... right, must be less American and more Canadian. :-P (speaking of which, I have a blog waiting to go on this very subject) Obviously he hit a sore spot in my back. That or his little map was off a little. I think he's off a little.

And so I layed there, afraid to move, (remember last time?) and thinking, this would be alot more effective if they had a table that didn't hurt so much. And again, the shoulders go numb, ribs contact there thug friends, and adjustments have to be made. In spite of all this, after a few days, I felt much better. Still am, though my bed is working hard at taking care of that. lol :-)

So, there you have it. I think you should run out and try this acu-needles thing and write to me about your experience. Could be fun. I know, it will be our experiment. :-) heh heh heh

:-P

Friday, August 05, 2005

Acu-PUNCTURE!!!

You know, I really miss the fine chiropractic services that we have in North Am. Coming to Korea, I thought that chiropractors would be a dime a dozen. Not so not so. People who want to stick you with sharp pointy objects are a dime a dozen. What a wonderful idea. Bored, don't know what to do? I have an idea! Let's go and pay some dude to stick needles in our backs. Yah! Doesn't that sound like righteous fun?!

I have this chronic problem with my back. I have this rib that wont stay in place and it really messes things up. My bed is a piece of .... and I wake up every morning stiff and sore like someone was kicking me all night long. Sometimes I can't even turn my neck. Candy you say? No thanks, I'll just chew on my Advil.

I was thinking about this the other morning as I was lying there in pain. You know what I wish they would develop? Laser sutures. I would love it if they could shoot some laser into my back, (hmmm, maybe through the needles) and stitch that stupid rib back into place. Wouldn't that be wonderful. Oh, I cry just thinking about it.

Ok, back to reality. :-) So, I get to the point (ha) that I just can't take it any more. I think I'm becoming immune to Advil. It doesn't seem to be working any more. That can't be good. What!!?! My liver went where???!!!

Right, so, I can't take it any more. In desperation, I'll try anything. Well, I find this Chinese Medicine place, dime a dozen, and I go in to see what they can do for me. Very nice place actually. They take me into the back and hook up one of my favorite machines. It's the electric massage thing with the little pads. They run an electric current through the muscle and massage the nasties out of it. I love that thing.

I thought, "gee, this place is actually pretty good". Yes, then the doc comes in and sticks needles in me. Now, the needles are pretty slim little things. Not much to them, but remember, the skin gets punctured and the needles go in. I think I pretty much understand what the needles are doing, interrupting the electrical flow in the muscle causing the muscle to relax and heal. (layman's terms, but that's what logically I have deduced. If you know, please share with me.)

The tables in this place that you lay on leave much to be desired. You are laying on a really thin pad laid over a table top and covered with material. Not very comfy. Ever lay on the floor for a long time and have your ribs begin to rebel. Yep. The problem is, with those needles in you back, you really don't want to move much. I discovered this the hard way. I'm laying there, (by the way, the table is pretty narrow and up against the wall so I can't even lay my arms out to get comfortable) and my shoulders are going numb and my ribs are like, "dude, we're walkin if you don't stop this, we have rights you know, our union rep will be down your throat if you don't knock it off." So... I try to move my arms around and shift my weight. Ouch!!!!! For such a little needle it caused a lot of pain. Yikes!!!!

The long and the short of it all was that I felt much better, until recently that is. It worked once so why not try it again right? Well, ... as this blog is getting really long, I'll end here for now. Join us next week and see, will it be splat went my back or don't eat the frog? Look...up in the sky! It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a frog. A FROG??? Not bird nor plane nor even frog, it's just little old me ... (do you know?
:-) ha ha ha.