Poor Ziggy

Today I had my second visit with Dr. Deborah Nixdorf, a naturopathic physician and licensed acupuncturist in nearby Forest Grove. (You can find out more about what she has to offer by going to www.fghealthandfitness.com.)

She spent a good deal of time going over recent lab results from blood work ordered by my primary physician. I'm a former nurse, so Ive been trained to look at lab work and if it falls in the normal range, consider it to be okay. But as Deborah was saying during my visit, there's a difference between acceptable and optimal. That made sense to me. So we're working together on some things that will bring me closer to that optimal level. Of course, when she talked about cuttingback on my carbohydrate consumption, the word "mutiny" did cross my mind!

Several people have said they want me to do updates as to how acupuncture is working for me. What I can tell you is that the week following my first treatment, I noticed a difference in two areas. One was that the sharp pains, the sensation of having a strip of hot tacks dragged across the top of my foot, has gone away. I still have a general numbness and tingling, but not the intermittent pain. Secondly, my insomnia has gotten much better. I'd been taking sleeping pills every night for months before my first session. Six out of the last seven nights, I've been able to get non-medicated sleep soon after turning off the light. Ever since I was a young teen, my mind has whirled at night, keeping me too busy to fall asleep. Deborah calls that "mind chatter."

One of the things I'm supposed to do is to take 100 deep breaths during the day. The kind of breaths where the air goes all the way down to your tummy. You can actually feel the abdomen rise and fall when done correctly. After she inserted the 15 needles and left the room, I closed my eyes and started doing my deep breathing exercise, slowly counting up to 44 by the time she came back. I said, "I made it to 44." She hesitated a moment, then said, "What?" I opened my eyes and looked over at her. "I took 44 deep breaths while you were out." She chuckled. "Oh, I thought you were saying you were 44 years old." We got to laughing about how busy she'd be if word got out that in 10 minutes of doing acupuncture she could remove 11 years from one's age!

So, I continue to view this as a journey the Lord has me on. Do I understand all of it? How acupuncture works? No way. But I know the Bible says I am "fearfully and wonderfully made." There is wisdom accrued through the ages that can strengthen my body and help me feel better. I'm all for that.