Thursday, January 16, 11:00 a.m.
It’s raining today! But I’m excited to be starting another individual acupuncture series, and especially looking forward to having Sophie Tu, the acupuncturist who did the group acupuncture sessions during the Pain Management Program I attended in January-March 2018.
I arrived with enough time to check in and fill in the form about my pain levels. And to look out a side window in the waiting room. Like looking into a new year and a new decade.
I recognized the assistant who called me in to the treatment room corridor. She placed me in a room, where I took my jacket off and put it on the back of the chair, while she made entries into the workstation in that room. Then she left and came back after a few minutes to tell me that she needed to put me into Sophie’s actual treatment room. So I grabbed my jacket and backpack and followed her to Sophie’s treatment room.
When Sophie came in, she extended her hand in welcome and introduced herself (standard procedure for Kaiser practitioners). I told her I remembered her from her group acupuncture sessions in the Pain Management Program two years ago. She had obviously looked at my medical records before she came in, because she knew everything about me already.
She informed me that since I am (still) a Chronic Pain patient, I would have 10 individual sessions with her. She told me that procedures have changed a bit in the last two years. Patients are no longer required to have three group acupuncture sessions before they can be admitted to the Pain Management Program.
She could see that I had had several group acupuncture sessions in 2019 with Jorge Intal. And she talked very positively about Jorge, seemed to indicate that he was the best acupuncturist in the Acupuncture Department–next to her. She told me that they are now recommending group acupuncture along with individual sessions, alternating every two weeks. My mind raced ahead, wondering how I was going to make that happen when I was really trying to cut down on the number of times that Linda had to drive me to Union City.
From her review of my medical record, Sophie could see how many prescription medications I’m on. I told her I am hoping to reduce and/or eliminate as many pharmaceutical interventions as I can.
“You know,” she said, “as long you are taking medications, you need to keep getting acupuncture to cleanse your body from the side effects of the medications!” I knew she was right.
I asked her how to pronounce Jorge’s surname, since I had never heard it spoken (only saw his name on his Kaiser badge). She told me, and then I asked, blurting out, “Is he Filipino?”
She nodded and I gave her two thumbs up!
Then she talked about Paul Simon, told me that he was no longer with Kaiser. She said he had a long commute and is a single dad and needed more time for his son. She said he was having trouble meeting his responsibilities at Kaiser and so it was no longer working for either of them. (When I checked back later on my notes about my last acupuncture session with Paul, I saw that he was a full half-hour late for my appointment, but that he gave me extra time at the end.)
She was not negative about Paul, indicating that they (Kaiser) valued family above work.
“You have small children, don’t you?” I asked, remembering that from the group sessions with her in 2018.
“Yes!” And then we launched into a conversation about how her generation, unlike their parents who married young and had children in their 20s, put a higher priority on getting ahead in their careers before getting married and having babies.
I smiled at that. “Yes, I know,” I nodded. “I have two children in their 40s who waited and just now have little children.”
She said something that indicated that she, too, is in her 40s. So here I am, being treated by a thoroughly competent medical professional who is in my children’s generation.
There was no massage chair in this room and apparently was not even considered an option (as it had been with Paul Simon). She instructed me to remove my t-shirt and pants, in addition to my shoes and socks and glasses. Bra removal was optional but encouraged if you had wire in your bra (which I don’t). She told me to put on the paper shorts that lay on the treatment table and she would be back in a few minutes. She turned on the music and the heat lamp. I took off my shirt and pants, put on the paper shorts, and then waited in the chair. When she came back into the room, I stood up.
“Before we get started,” she said, “do you have to go to the bathroom?”
I said, “No,” and then she helped position me face down on the treatment table, with my head in the doughnut-shaped cushion. I was familiar with that, as my first physical therapist (Carole in Oakland in December 2017) had me lie down on her treatment table for cervical spine manual manipulation (the only treatment that I felt did any good for my pain back then). Sophie adjusted the arm rests where she thought it would be more comfortable for me.
We talked more while Sophie was getting me ready. I told her I was also interested in acupressure, and especially what role it might have in emotional healing. (I remembered from her acupuncture groups in 2018 that she seemed positive about both acupressure and “tapping.”) And she still is positive about acupressure. Her advice was to see an acupressurist in person–if you could afford it, since Kaiser doesn’t offer it–once or twice a year.
Then the conversation turned to the topic of biofeedback. I had told her that I was continuing to see Francis for Pain Physical Therapy. She said she thought Francis did biofeedback in his practice.
“Hmm, I’ll have to ask him about that at my next appointment,” I mused, though I thought to myself that possibly Dr. Julie Whitehead, the Pain Psychologist, might be more likely to do biofeedback. At any rate, that’s something I will pursue *after* my tax returns are done! And I don’t see Francis again until April anyway.
The heat lamp had warmed up by that time. I commented on how nice the music was, that it was traditional Chinese music, not Western music, and she seemed pleased that I had noticed that. She gave me a verbal indication just before she was ready to put the needles in. I felt the needles on my head, neck, shoulders, and hands, and then on my ankles. (Paul had put needles in my ankles only once or twice.)
Just before she left the room, she told me clearly that it would be 25 minutes. I appreciated knowing that! So I settled in to the treatment, doing my usual mindful breathing but not thinking about anything in particular, just enjoying knowing that healing is happening.
It seemed like the 25 minutes passed too quickly! But it always does. I may have dozed off and on during that time, but I was completely and totally relaxed, either way. At one point, the left side of my nose itched almost incontrollably, but there was no way I could scratch it without losing needles! So that’s when I (successfully) practiced guided meditation of recognizing the itch and letting it go. That happened twice but it worked both times.
When Sophie came back, she removed the needles, asked how I felt, and told me to stop at the reception desk on my way out and make my next appointment with her as well as another group session (I hope with Jorge) in between my sessions with her.
At the reception desk, when I asked for my next appointment with Sophie to be in mid-February, she told me that her next available slot was Monday, March 3, 2:00 p.m. I had no choice. “I’ll take it,” I told her. Then, “Sophie wants me to have another group appointment in between now and my next appointment with her. How about a group appointment in February?”
“How about January 30, 3:30 p.m.?” she asked. I nodded, and put it in my Google calendar on my phone.
UPDATES
When I got out to the van where Linda and Emily were vegging, I asked Linda if she had called Dr. Batra (the eye surgeon) to make an appointment.
“Yes,” she said, “for Thursday, January 30, at 1:30 p.m.”
I was silent for a minute. Then I told her that we must have been making our respective appointments at the same time because neither of us could see that the other one had made an appointment. But I very quickly told her that it would be very easy for me to change my group acupuncture and that I would do that when we got home. Which I did.
My next group acupuncture appointment is for Monday, February 3, 2:00 p.m., and individual with Sophie on Thursday, March 5, 11:30 a.m.
I felt SO relaxed and optimistic about life after my acupuncture session! I was not prepared for the negative trigger for a meltdown that happened later that evening, totally destroying all the good that my acupuncture session had done. But…that’s for another blog, not this one.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
I took some time late Sunday night/early Monday morning to listen to one of the videos from Michael Gach, PhD, author of the book that Francis recommended to me in March of 2018 and which I still have on my Kindle. This is definitely a strategy I want to keep pursuing! The videos are/were found at https://acupressure.com/workshop-videos/.
