Trust your body

When your body is talking, it's wise to pay attention.

A month ago, my acupuncture student had a schedule shift. While I am very flexible in terms of when I can go for treatment, really, any day, any time, Dr. Zhong is only at the clinic on Wednesday morning. He has been following my treatment for more than a year, and he is known at the clinic as the herb guru. He knows his stuff people!

When my friend Elisabeth moved her acupuncture practice from Houston to ElPaso, she recommended the clinic where she went to school and in particular that I see any student supervised by Dr. Zhong as he still mentored her and was already familiar with my file.

My first student graduated and isn't quite ready to start her own practice. I really liked her and would have followed. My second student was okay, but English is not her first language and I often had to struggle to understand her. Her schedule shifted and somehow, she didn't understand my request for a student of Dr. Zhong.

My third student, hmm... I suppose I liked him well enough, but I was a little put out to be seeing a man. I tried really hard to specifically not judge the experience based on gender, but really it did make a difference, and I say that is equanimously as possible. In addition to his he-ness, he is followed by a different Dr. A Dr. not the herb guru as the herbs he switched me to made me pretty sick.

Sick is totally a relative term, but I was almost willing to go to a regular clinic (it was the weekend) because I had a major headache that I knew was not sinus or stress. I also had major joint and muscle acheyness, to say nothing of the fact that my disease was a little out of control. And let's not forget the fever and chills running rampant. And let's not forget, I was emotional and crying at the drop of a hat as well as feeling increasingly antisocial.

I had been given different herbs and it took about three weeks for all of this to build up to feeling like crappola. Then, after eb playing the concerned card, it occurred to me finally (D.U.H.) that it might be the herbs. I didn't take them the next day and I felt about 40% better by noon. Then I didn't take them the following day and I was feeling normalish. On the third day I took what was left from my previous prescription (for three days) and I called to reschedule my appointment from student 3, stressing that he was not the problem, and that it was essential to me that I have a student of Dr. Zhong. Nothing else mattered.

Student 4 has the same disease I do and has gotten treatment for it so she knows what works for her and that can guide her in working on me. She also used to get treatment form Elisabeth (who I started with) so there is some synergy going on.

Seems this time fourth time might be the charm. Stay tuned.