So, I've always thought of Chinese medicine as quackery, I'm a little ashamed to admit. It just sounded like snake oil to me. I pictured Mr. Miyagi waving his hands over my abdomen and chanting while incense burned in a shady backroom.
I was wrong.
Three years after the initial exposure to the mold (although before we knew what was making us sick), I finally got brave enough to try something I had heard a long time ago might help my persistent chronic fatigue issues - acupuncture.
I had my first appointment today, in a well-lit, clean office attended by a blue-eyed Pennsylvania transplant wearing a lab coat.
It took me a long time to get over my initial reaction to the idea of acupuncture in general - helped along by talking to some other seemingly normal people I trust who have also taken the plunge.
What was it like? I could sort of feel a few of the needles just barely as they went in, but only for a second. When he finished putting all of them in where he wanted them, I felt as though suddenly my muscles weighed a ton and I wanted nothing more than to close my eyes and burrow into a cocoon of sleep. Sort of like being put under anesthesia - your limbs literally get heavy, then your eyelids.
I didn't actually fall asleep - I was too acutely aware of my own anxiety for that - but it made me very relaxed, and I was able to breathe more deeply in that 20 minutes than I felt like I have in probably three years.
It's too early for me to tell if this is helping me or if it really is just kind of a placebo. But this long after the exposure, what have I got to lose?
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