Oriental Acupuncture - 1st Treatment Today!

After a bad start to the week from high pain levels and my upper back becoming horribly irritated from tension and compensating for my hip area I had my first appointment with the Oriental Acupuncture Clinic here in Timaru this afternoon.

I had acupuncture previously with physio's but most times it hurt or they managed to hit a nerve which was not pleasant. Plus their attitude and execution make you feel like a number rather than a paitient. They pop some needles in and leave you for 5-10mins then take them out and send you on your way. I never thought to ask how long they trained for and what was their qualifications..

I arrived and was led into a lovely warm treatment room and got settled face down in the table. He started off feeling different points over my back and identifying the problem areas then started inserting the needles across my shoulders, down my back and around the hip area.

Once all the needles were in he turned on a heat lamp (this bit I loved as I hate the cold and felt like a turtle sunning it'self!) and positioned it over the needles to allow the muscles to warm and the heat to travel deep into the muscles down through the needles.

While the needles were doing their thing he moved onto my ears and undertook acupuncture on each ear with an Electro Acupuncture machine - basicly it found the points and beeped when in the correct position then the needle went in and an electric stimulation charge was sent through the needle. (I know this sounds weird but I will try to find some good reference photos!) There were about 5-6 points on each ear and once finished he placed small seeds over the points and secured them with tape as in txt below;

How is ear acupuncture used in a treatment?

Ear acupuncture is generally incorporated into a regular acupuncture treatment. In addition to using acupuncture points on the rest of the body, your acupuncturist may select a few ear acupuncture points that they feel will be helpful for your particular condition.

What are ear seeds and ear tacks?

Ear acupuncture points may be stimulated for a longer period of time by using ear seeds or ear tacks. Ear seeds are small seeds from the Vaccaria plant. These seeds are held in place on the ear with a small piece of adhesive tape. Ear seeds may be left in the ear for a few days or up to two weeks. Ear tacks are very small needles with an adhesive backing. Ear tacks are inserted into the ear and left in the ear for a few days or up to one week.

So I think I will wear my hair down for the next couple of days otherwise I think I will get some funny looks!!

A while later the needles were removed from my hip/back and this was followed by the most amazing massage - completely different to any I had experienced over the years from physios/therapist and was vigourous but relaxing at the same time. He also used a very strong peppermint/herb oil and I felt this seeping deep into the muscles.

The whole treatment was just over an hour and it was so much more rewarding than any physio appointments I have had. I walked out feeling like I was on a cloud and that lasted for a couple of hours before the aches started to come back again. I do expect some flares as this is the first time I have had handson treatment in OVER 6 MONTHS!! So I have a lot of knotted/tight/toxic muscles.

Off to heat a wheatbag up now and hopefully have a better nights sleep :)

Earthquakes + Pain Meds = Interesting!

At 9.22pm tonight there was an Earthquake centered approx 90km south of Te Anau. I was catching up on some emails and felt a little 'dizzy' and thought my laptop screen was moving.... (it didn't help that I had taken some strong pain killers with dinner as my hip had been bad today!!) I looked over at our kitten (who had been fast asleep) and she was looking at me and around the room like "What the??"

I figured she hadn't been into my meds so it must be an earthquake :). This is the first earthquake since we have had this house and it's pretty solid I must say. There were only a couple of creaking sounds, nothing falling off etc. It was quite a rolling long quake and the main one was at 9.22pm hitting 7.8 with an aftershock at 9.41pm with 6.1.

For those that are interested you can go to - www.geonet.org.nz and click on the RECENT QUAKES tab for more info, I had a look and there are smaller quakes happening all the time over NZ which is hardly surprising as there is a large fault line all the way through the country!

We don't have a lot of 'big' quakes here & that is a good thing - the last significant one was quite a few years ago and I remember standing in the kitchen at my parents place and the whole house swayed from side to side and I couldn't believe there wasn't huge cracks in the walls afterwards!

Hawaii had a Tsunami warning in place for a period - this is now lifted and there has only been one report of a small wave surge hitting an area near Haast on the West Coast.

Date For Surgery & Cold Weather

Finally received an email back today from the specialist's receptionist with a selection of dates to choose from for my next surgery.

I chose Thursday 27th August - little over 5 weeks away! So at least we have time to get things organised. It's in Christchurch again, back at Southern Cross Hospital.

I am looking forward to my screw removal surgery because things can't go the way the have been - it's just getting too sore however I am quite nervous as there is no way to know what is going to happen after the surgery. Crutches will be my friends again for a while and I can only hope the operation doesn't flare things up even more.

Winter is also taking it's toll - the cold is really not my friend and the past two nights the temp has got down to around -5oC!! The ground is still frosty white and it's lunch time.. brrrr.

Tens Machine + Antiflamme + Trigger Points = Happier Muscles

I had such a terrible nights sleep last night I decided do try a few things to help tonight. First i got out my Tens/EMS machine which is physio issue - not the cheap pocket ones you can get on Trademe!

I had used it on my partner a few times but kept forgetting to use it on me! The area I was having a lot of problems as well as my hip was my back, mainly my upperback at the moment from braline above. My muscles are so tight from the strain of what's happening in the hip area that my neck, across my shoulders and down my upper arms is a minefield of red hot poker knots. I started with the EMS mode which stimulates healing and relaxes the muscles in preparation for the Tens mode.

Placed a couple patches at an angle on each shoulder (will post up some photos tomorrow if I get a chance) and relaxed while it did it's work. After the time was up it felt good - like I had done a workout and loosened the muscles up. I followed that up with some trigger point work across the upper back area (man there were some mean points I found) and ended with lashings of Antiflamme and E-Balm.

It has definately helped so hopefully one part of me will be a bit more relaxed tonight for a better sleep! I think I will work more on my back tomorrow to try to settle that down a bit more :)

Sleep well everyone xox

Operation #3 - Waiting for a date

This week I received my surgery approval to remove the screws left in from the open surgery I had on June 14th last year (2008). Thankfully it only took a couple of weeks from seeing my specialist to getting the approval from ACC however my specialist is now on holiday and I am still waiting after many emails for a surgery date. It is looking like late late August/Early Sept at this stage.

Little frustrating as over the past couple of weeks I have had a major flare - not even sure if I can call it a flare more like everything has got worse and not settled. This week alone my hip has started hurting much more in the groin (labrum issues again??) and there have been a lot more pains deep in the bone. As well as increased muscle pain - currently my calves and hands are the only muscles which are not in severe pain.

Sleeping has been frustrating more than usual as my 'good' side is now so irritated I am unable to sleep on it and if i try it goes completely numb and hurts like crazy so I am left to sleep on my back with pillows under knees etc. Very hard to get comfy so lack of sleep isn't helping!!

I was also given new painkillers to try as my body had gotten used to previous ones and the effect was minimal. These new ones are very strong and it feels like there are a lot of nasty chemicals in their makeup.

Hmm I think that's enough moaning for now :) Post more later! Hope everyone is surviving winter - there have been some heavy frosts here!!

X-Ray Timeline

Here are some of the x-rays taken throughout my injury;

1/ Left hip pre any surgery

2/ Cross table view pre surgery

3/ Left Hip 6 Weeks Post Op From Open Surgery To Treat - FAI/Labral Tears/Bursitis

The only thing which is really evident on the x-rays is the shaving of the Femoral Head on the left side as you look at the x-ray. Most of the bone which was cut away was around the back of the head and can be seen better in the cross table view.

You can also see the two screws which are holding the Greater Trocanter in place after it was cut off (you can see where they cut in the x-ray as a thin white line) whilst preserving the blood supply to the hip to allow the surgeon to dislocate the hip.

4/ Cross Table View Same Date As Above

5/ Left Hip 1 Year & 1 Week Post Op From Open Surgery (as above)

6/ Cross Table View Same Date As Above

Dusting Off The Cobwebs..

Yes my blog has been neglected - my last post was in October last year! Though it doesn't feel to me that long. Well as I bring this back to life I am waiting for my third hip operation in a year & a half.

Amazingly in a few months it will be fours years since my accident that started me on this rather painfull road. Though because of my injury I have been fortunate to meet a lot of wonderful people and new doors have opened along the way.

Just a quick post - more catchup posts to follow later today :)