"Things That Make a Grown Woman Cry" or "Back Pain" or "Why Community Is Important"

Thursday afternoon I started experiencing pain in my back. I couldn't figure out exactly which part of my back it was, but I was in pain. I stretched my back a bit and figured I'd sleep and feel better in the morning. Laying down on my back helped. The next morning, I was still in pain, which increased as the day progressed. By this time it was only on my right side. At work, I took a couple ibuprofen (400) but it took forever to kick in. By the time it did, I was already at an acupuncturist (as recommended by my friend, Betty) right across the street from my building (as recommended by a Facebook group I'm in). I gotta say, if I hadn't gotten the recommendation from Betty and then gone looking on Facebook I'd have just suffered. I've never experienced this kind of pain before, so I didn't know how to handle it.

So I went to Shin Tong Clinic. It's an "Oriental Medicine" clinic that, I think, specializes in acupuncture. When I got there they were closed for lunch so I sat and waited and had a half-Korean/half-English chat with the attendant. Turns out, she was a student at the middle connected to the high school where I work. That's amazing, because I work outside the city quite a ways.

The entrance

The waiting room. Nice and spacious.

I really like the atmosphere of the place. Very calm. I spoke with one of the doctors and she checked my pulse and then asked about the pain. I was then led to a back room where I lay on a bed with a hot water bottle wrapped in a towel under my back. The doctor came in and told me the needles would hurt a bit. She only does acupuncture in the pressure points in the hands and feet (sometimes legs). The ones in my fingers and toes hurt the most (but "the most" wasn't a lot), like a .... well.... like being pricked with a needle lol. But then the pain subsided and I promptly fell asleep. I was told to return the next day (today).

I felt a bit better as I went home. That night, though (last night), I only managed to sleep for a few hours on my back. The pain woke me up. It had moved from my whole right side to my entire lower back. I wasn't sure if this was just my body identifying the source of the pain or one of those "it gets worse before it gets better" situations, but it REALLY HURT. I managed to fall asleep after an hour of adjusting and struggling and finding a comfortable-ish position on my side.

This morning I woke up still in pain. Movement was difficult and showering was a challenge. But I made it. Got to the clinic, sat and waited, and then was brought to the back room again. I explained the change in where I was carrying pain and that laying on my back was painful. This time I had not taken any painkillers. I thought that I wanted to know exactly where the pain was and if the acupuncture was working. But man... so much pain.

We found an okay position for me, with my legs resting on a bolster or pillow or whatever you call it, so that my back wasn't arched. The hot towel became too hot so we removed it. But then as I lay with the needles in, my back started to hurt from the lack of support I guess so the attendant brought in a regular towel to help. They were all very nice. Especially when I started to cry.

Yes I cried. The doctor was preparing my positioning to put the needles in and asked me to move up the bed a bit. That movement was so painful and then combine that with whatever emotional toll it had taken on me (every movement being difficult, being alone, being a bit scared) and the tears just came. There was another woman in my partition so I kept it quiet but the attendant started to rub my leg to calm me and the doctor started to rub and my hand and together they made for comforting noises and the doctor said "don't cry" the way a mom would to a child. I was a bit embarrassed, but there was nothing I could do but cry, so I just cried into the tissue they gave me.

Then the doctor put in the needles and I spent the next 30 minutes in discomfort but trying to stay calm and relax.

The one in my finger pinched at first, but the other two I didn't really feel.

Add to these needles 1 on the right side of my ankle behind the ankle bone, 1 on the top of my ankle, and 2 in the back of my knee. Some of them pinched going in, but most of them I didn't feel at all.

As soon as I got home I prepared lunch and took a Naproxen. I'm not messing around with this back pain. It needs to go. Especially since I'm going to Canada in LESS THAN A WEEK OMG I'M SO EXCITED.

Okay that's all.

Also, the number of times I said "pain" in this post: 18. Ouch.