Pain Physical Therapy #3

Today is my third individual session for physical therapy with Francis.

When I checked in, the girl did not ask for a co-pay, so I'm sure someone down the line will bill me. I hate doing it like this. I would rather just pay with my card at the time of the appointment, because I have to rack my brain later, trying to remember what date I had an appointment on that I was supposed to be billed for.

When Francis came into the waiting room, I had my back to him and was attempting to perform acupressure on my neck. This did not escape his notice! He mentioned it and applauded me for doing it.

I followed him back to his office, now a familiar place. We talked briefly, as usual. I verbalized my frustration with gabapentin causing headaches but followed rather quickly with, "But I have an appointment with the pain pharmacist next week." He nodded.

I sat on the patient table and he checked my range of motion in my neck and said he thought I was making progress! He asked me to do various movements, and then he manipulated my head and neck in different ways, asking if what he was doing made it feel better, feel worse, or no different.

He gave me a new neck exercise and then showed me a hard rubber massage ball with rounded nubs, which he placed under my neck on the right side and showed me how I could use a ball like this for acupressure. Great idea!

Finally, he scheduled me for another appointment on the second Friday of June.

Individual Acupuncture Therapy #1

Today is the long-awaited appointment with an individual acupuncturist (not a group of a dozen or more patients!). The assistant took me into a regular doctor's office, small, with chairs and a patient table. Mr. Simon had already looked at my medical records so he already knew everything I told him. He even actually remembered me as being one of the group acupuncture patients from January 17!

I told him upfront that, in addition to acupuncture with him, I am very interested in pursuing acupressure. He showed me two places on my right hand where pressure points for neck pain are, and he placed a small sticky on each spot. He also showed me three places on my left ankle that were pressure points to relieve pain on the right side of my neck.

He did some explanations of meridians and energy, which I appreciated. For the today's acupuncture session, he asked me if I would be more comfortable on the patient table or a massage chair. I told him whatever would provide the best support for my head. He left for a moment and came back with a portable massage chair, had me sit on it, and made some adjustments.

He placed needles in various spots on my head and neck and two on my arms. I was thinking the right arm needle must be in a small blood vessel because it was pulsating with my heartbeat! The left arm needle didn't do that, but there was no pain in either needle nor with any of the other needles.

I have learned how to stay extremely still, not even twitching a nose!, during an acupuncture session by practicing mindful breathing and meditation. Mr. Simon left the room, and there was soft music playing so the ambience was perfect.

Fifteen minutes later, he came back into the room and asked me how I was doing. "Just fine," I answered, not moving a muscle. So he left for another 15 minutes when he came back in and removed the needles.

How do I feel? Very relaxed and refreshed, as I did after the last two group acupuncture sessions with Sophie.

Before I left, he scheduled my next appointment for May 17.

Pain Management Group Follow-up

It felt like six weeks passed pretty quickly. The commute was easy and uncomplicated. Checking in and sitting in the waiting room felt very familiar although a bit strange since there was only one person I saw from our original group of ten. After we had assembled in our group meeting room, there were just six of us from our original group, plus one other person from another group.

Dr. Whitehead began the session with meditation, which I expected, and that was very nice. It was a familiar guided imagery of the beach! Then we went right into "group therapy" with each of us telling what we are still doing that is helpful (with pain management) and what things we are still struggling with. Several said their struggle is with "trying to do too much." Mine was a variation of that: sitting too long at the computer without a break. Some said it was hard for them to ask other people for help. Well, that would have been me six months ago! In the past six weeks, I've had to ask Linda for technical assistance with web clients. We both struggle with brain fog, but apparently mine is worse when it comes to technology! Finally, we were asked to write down (on cards she passed out) two helpful tips. Then she collected the cards and typed them into a document which she printed out (on bright pink card stock!) and distributed for a take-home.

Francis ended the session with Tai Chi taken from a new YouTube video called "Adapted Tai Chi Part 1," which I looked up at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbGvYXB08uk

After class, I spoke privately to Francis to confirm that the Tuesday drop-in group on the 4th Tuesday of April (the 24th) would be focused on acupressure, which I will try very hard to be able to attend. It will mean getting to Alameda for the Farmers' Market and Trader Joe's two hours earlier than our "usual" in order to be able to get home to unload groceries and then to Union City for the 3-5 p.m. group.