Needles

After almost a month of some serious fever-running, poor-sleeping, joint-swelling, flaring, I decided to try out acupuncture while my doc and I are waiting for some labs to come back. I did my second session yesterday.

And there has been improvement :)

Since the first session last week, I have slept all the way through the night (yay for no more waking up hurting!) and even though I am still running a fever a couple of times during the day, I am no longer CONSTANTLY running a fever, and the temp is lower. So yay for progress!

I am going to do one more session next week - we are hoping that my joint pain starts to go away too. If it doesn't, next week's session will be more localized on the joints causing the most pain.

I'm going to a different acupuncture place than I did for The Back and I like this place much better. Acupuncture doesn't hurt, but it can have its uncomfortable moments (like realizing you have 24 needles stuck in your feet, legs, hands, arms, stomach, and collarbone), you do feel the prick of the needle, especially since she is using a larger gauge needle for me (I think it's because of how much inflammation I have...), but after the needles are in, I get to lie in a spa-ish room with nice music for about 45 minutes. I totally nap :). For the most part, I don't feel the removal of the needles, but I do bleed a bit for some of them, and I have had two small bruises form. All in all, I don't mind acupuncture, and I am thankful that it is working!

One interesting tidbit, with my flares, my appetite goes all weird, as in, I don't have one. So when I saw her yesterday, it was already past lunch time and I hadn't eaten yet since I wasn't hungry. She pushed on a spot on my inner ankle and asked, is this tender? Oh, it was. JAB. Needle in. And my stomach started growling!!! Apparently, that particular spot is connected to my spleen and my stomach. Who knew!? And when she put in the one in my stomach, more growling! (granted, my appetite is back to its lowness state today, but don't worry, I am making sure I eat enough :) ). Anyhow, I just found that interesting.