I have been having headaches, joint aches and generally feeling unwell for three weeks and after a horribly painful night with no sleep again I decided that it was time to do something about it. I called the doctors at 8am and spent 12 minutes listening to a repeated engaged tone before getting through and being booked in for 9.10am. Anyone who isn’t feeling great and worrying what it will be will know how that engaged tone becomes a drilling in your ear and this is how I was feeling. I sat and had a cup of tea whilst pondering the words that the doctor may speak – “I want to refer you for an MRI”, which inevitably means (in the mind of someone who adds 2 plus 2 and gets 5) that I have a brain tumor and was going to be given days to live.
We left for the doctors and got there at least half an hour early, so we sat in the waiting room. I was convinced they were going to be running late and this was going to wind me up, but remarkably the receptionist called me through at 9am. I sat in the chair and told the doctor how I was feeling. I included the description of how my husband had given me a back massage and was so embarrassed in case he was thinking we had been getting fruity, and insisted, without need to, that this was solely for the purpose of relieving my tense shoulders. I told him that as he massaged my shoulders I began to get bed-spins in the same way you would if you were drunk, and that when he pressed on a certain point below my right shoulder blade I got a rushing pain to my head. He was typing furiously and then he said, ‘hmmm, interesting’. That was it. I was convinced my days were numbered. What followed equated to the most surreal appointment I have ever had and to be honest I could not have imagined the next 30 minutes.
The doctor asked me if I would like acupuncture. I immediately said yes and without thinking went into a treatment room, took off my top and let him put 4 separate needles in me. One behind my ear, one in my ‘trigger spot’ as he called it, one in my lower back and one in the soft tissue between the thumb and forefinger of my right hand. The first three went in and I didn’t feel a thing but the last one in my hand caused my fingers to start rapidly moving without my control for about a minute. He said there and then that he thought I would respond well, as all four sites had red flares suggesting a histamine release. I don’t know what that means but he said it was a good thing.
I then sat there for 20 minutes while he saw other patents and he returned, took them out and proceeded to show me a shibashi technique to relax but got my husband doing it too! This mainly involved standing with our shoulders being relaxed, hips pushed forward and lifting/dropping our arms almost like we were trying to waft the doc out of the room. When we had finished he said to come back in a week and if it had worked we could look at further sessions.
We walked out, and just burst out laughing at how surreal it was. The most amazing thing was that the headache, the back ache and the tiredness had all gone. I spent the rest of the morning energized and clearing out our brick outbuilding. In the afternoon I lay on the sofa to have a small sleep and ended up in a deep sleep for over 2 hours.
What did I learn? 1- Drugs and a sick note aren’t always the best way to get well and I will certainly be looking towards more holistic therapies to treat my many ailments. 2 – Never predict what is going to happen at a doctor’s appointment!
