Tuesday, March 9, 2021, 1:50 p.m.
It’s been more than a whole year since the last time I was in group acupuncture! So I knew there would be protocols, possibly having only 8 chairs in the room instead of the usual 16 chairs.
I arrived on time and checked in with the receptionist who instructed me to go to the group acupuncture room where another Medical Assistant would assign my chair and give me the alcohol wipes to clean my ears.
Apparently, I was the first of the group to arrive, and she assigned me to chair #6. I saw that they had divided the big room into two smaller rooms, with each room having 4 chairs, one in each corner and at least 10 ft. apart. The new thing was that I was given a face shield which I put on over my own mask that I already had on. The M.A. handed the face shield to me in a medium-size paper bag with handles so it was totally “contactless.” She said, “This is for you to keep.” I don’t know whether that means I should bring it back with me to the next group acupuncture, or whether they will need to give the patients a new one every time.
I didn’t have time to take a selfie before the acupuncturist came in (so I took it in the car before we went home). The acupuncturist was a pleasant, young Asian woman who I hadn’t seen before and I didn’t see her name badge, so I don’t even know who she is. She was efficient and proficient in placing the 5 needles in each ear. Before she placed the needles, however, she asked what part of my body the pain was in (and I told her right side of my neck). She said I would have 30 minutes, so I settled in. I was aware of the nice Eastern music playing softly, and I was glad when she closed the door. I could hear other patients being settled in as they arrived, but I had no idea how many patients actually showed up.
I focused on mindful breathing and I felt very relaxed. I don’t think I dozed off but I may have, since the “30 minutes” seemed awfully short! When she came back to remove the needles, I asked if I had “lost” any of them.
“No, you didn’t. Did it feel like you lost some of them?”
“No,” I answered. But I reflected silently on how I always use to lose one or two when Jorge was the group acupuncturist.
On my way out, I asked the M.A. if I’m supposed to make another appointment now, and she said, no, someone will call me. Well, we’ll wait and see if that happens! If it doesn’t, I will at least have had the experience of group acupuncture done during the pandemic.
I kept the face shield on as I left the Acupuncture Department, went down the elevator, and out to the van.
Tuesday, March 16, 2021, 4:00 p.m.
Today was the “regular” online pain group, with Dr. Julie Whitehead, Pain Psychologist, who did the 10-minute meditation and 20-minute presentation (this one a review of Mindfulness). Julie announced that in April the online pain group will be using Microsoft Teams, and we will be given a new link for each session.
Then Francis, my Pain Physical Therapist, facilitated a very gentle 30-minute QiGong session based on “Spring Forest Qi Gong” for which he gave a link for us to use afterwards. He told us that the woman in the demo was a pain patient for whom traditional physical therapy had not “worked” to relieve her pain, so she turned to QiGong. (The video is 19 minutes.)
