Pins, Needles and Huge Hands

Well I have gone to the other side. Yes, I went to an acupuncturist the other day and I can't tell you what a difference it made. On Father's Day I suddenly got a head/neck ache that was so bad I couldn't even move. I felt like I was going to get sick in my stomach (great thought huh?). Monday morning, at Raul's insistence, I called a lady in Rancho Palos Verdes and went to see her. Within a few minutes of sticking me with about 30 needles, not only could I move my neck but I actually felt better overall! Call it my imagination or whatever, but I could feel what she said was the "energy" moving in my body. Okay, I know you're thinking I'm losing it, but I promise it was really happening. I told her my right hand was hurting, she moved the needle in my left hand and it stopped! She promised I would sleep better, as I wake up seven or eight times a night because I turn over and my head pounds forcing me to remember Lamaze breathing, or the sound of my wonderful husband "not snoring" wakes me enough that my elbow meets his ribs! Sticking a needle in my left thigh it became "hot", for lack of a better word. She informed me my body was very out of balance, (guess I'm more off than I care to admit!). Anyway the next morning I woke up startled, kind of like the first time your baby sleeps through the night and you wake up in the morning and you wonder what is wrong. I hadn't woken up once during the night.

I've seen her two more times since, today being the latest. She still hadn't been able to stop the headaches when I turned over, so she called the doctor a few doors down. In walked this man who filled the doorway, with hands as large as my feet! He is a Chiropractor and when I told him where it hurt he proceeded to tell me why. Anyway it turns out my jaw was out of whack. Guess the stress is getting to me at night and I am clinching and grinding my teeth. He said he could manipulate it back into place, but warned me it hurt. Hurt is an understatement! He put his huge fingers inside my mouth into the place your upper and lower jaw come together and pushed really hard, warning me beforehand not to pull at his hand no matter how bad it hurt. Then he told me to chew like I was chewing gum, all the while leaving his hands inside my mouth. After that he said to bite his finger as hard as I could (this was fine with me payback for all the pain he had just inflicted). Then he did it to the other side, which hurt even worse, if that's possible. He then took my jaw and moved it around instructing me to relax, Yea right!!! That's like telling someone to relax in the middle of a contraction. One more round of pushing, chewing, biting and the final test. He had me roll over onto my stomach, and what do you know...no pain!!! I guess I understand now how you can be in love with someone who really hurts you. He even had me reach down and pick something off the floor while sitting on the table. Still no pain. I'm a firm believer! Best of all, he wouldn't even let me pay him. Now, if I can only get my jaw to stop hurting!?!