Stick, Stuck, Stucken

Tonight we went to Friday Night Bible Study with our friend, Haekyung, and her family. It's right across from part of the UCLA campus, and has lots of students. Great time meeting some new brothers and sisters in Christ.

Afterward, there was a gentleman and his wife who came in. Turns out he is one of the best doctors of "Oriental Medicine" in LA and a pain specialist. We turned one of the church nurseries into a treatment room. First, he had me lay on my back. He felt both legs, and discussed what he thought was wrong (mostly in Korean). He had me push my left foot against his hand in several different positions, asking when I felt pain.

Next, he had me roll over on my stomach. This is where the needles started to go in. They felt like little bee stings. Some "burned" a little in my muscles. He determined the problem was in my calf, where the muscles were very tight and not in good shape. This was in turn affecting my ankle. I told him I had, in the past few years, easily damaged Achilles tendons. If I carry something heavy up stairs, I can't walk for a day or two, so I'm always having to be careful. He thought this and the current left ankle injury were related to the condition of my calf muscles.

While I was on my stomach, he put a number of needles in my (left) calf. Some hurt more than others, but not because of the needle. It was like they were affecting the muscles in my legs in different ways, some quite painfully. He massaged my calves, and said he could feel the muscles knotted up. Indeed, as he massaged, it felt like they would cramp at any moment.

Next, he had me stand up. He put two needles in my right hand (the first ones I had actually seen). Not sure why he did this, put it was "interesting" to see them go in.

Then he went behind me and placed a needle in each of my Achilles tendons. "Try to walk." When I did, the pain was quite great. So he had me just rock slowly side to side. This hurt too, but slowly began to get better. He led me slowly into walking, and with a little work it didn't hurt anymore.

Was it all instantly better? No. But I was able to walk a little easier. He said I would be able to tell a difference tomorrow, but that it would still take a week or so. And he advised me to do more stretching exercises every day. I walk a lot, but haven't really exercised regularly since starting as a full-time student last year.

Bottom line, he seemed to really know what he was talking about, and it did seem to help some. And it was quite painful at times, but not from the insertion of the needles. My friend Haekyung is a MD, and she was there interacting with the OMD (Oriental Medicine Doctor) the whole time. He was showing her where to put the needles in my calf, and Kyehee informs me the plan is for her to stick me again tomorrow. (Haekyung is also studying oriental medicine right now, so I'm like her homework, I think.) More later as things progress...