Treatment Room

My GAWD... Look at my underground treatment room! LOL...!!! Yes. I've held "treatments" at my home this past weekend and they are not of the sexual kind! My treatments were free and slightly on the trial and error side, but that is not to say that I didn't know what I was doing at all.

From the training that I have gone thru so far, I can technically treat a small variety of musculoskeletal disorders using tuina. Some of the disorders that I could treat include sciatica, frozen shoulder, bursitis, tennis elbow, golfer's elbow, torn rotator cuff muscles, scapular pain, back pain, and neck pain. In the upcoming weeks, I would be treating the lower extremities as well.

Attempt to Reconnect

Hi... I know I haven't spoken to many of you for months, if not for
years even. It was never my intention to lose touch, but the hermit
in me always seems to win. Life also seems to always keep me busy in
ways that I never intended... some good... some not so good... but,
that's life.

I just wanted to take this opportunity and a little of your time to
perhaps "reconnect". :)

So... some of you have known that I was comtemplating going back to
school late last year, but due to certain circumstances, I wasn't able
to. Well... I am back in school again while I'm stilling working full
time at Teach For America as QA Lead for their Websphere Portal
project. Work has been brutal this past year with salary cuts, health
insurance premium increases and tons of finger pointing by the
client... but, I've managed. I started the project two years ago as
one of the testers, but have now taken the position as QA Lead with a
small staff of testers. With the new role, I have new
responsibilities, but I also have the authority to restructure the
whole QA process into a more manageable one.

Alas, work is work... :)

My new love is in school... and for those who know me a bit better,
know that I HATE school. I guess all that changed when I finally went
back to my first love... medicine.

I am now enrolled in Pacific College of Oriental Medicine studying to
be an acupuncturist... a Traditional Chinese Medicine practioner to be
more precise. The modalities of the trade include acupuncture,
moxibustion, cupping, herbology (chinese internal medicine), guasha
(scrape therapy), dietary therapy, and tuina (medical massage
therapy).

It's going to be a long journey... 4 years full time or 8 years part
time. My education will include both chinese medicine and western
medicine. My clinical shifts will also start next semester where I
will be an observer.

Best of all... I'm enjoying it and I'm loving it. :)

Well... thanks for reading thus far... I have one more request of
you... can you please email me your cell phone number and other
contact information that you would like to share with me? :) I have
been without a working cellphone and now no phonebook contacts for a
few months already.

I hope this email finds you and your loved ones in good health and spirits.

Enjoy your weekend.

Sparky

--
"If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me."
- W.H. Auden, 1907-1973

Secret Feminist

"It's because you are a secret feminist on the inside..."
"Uhm... actually I am..."

And so it goes... my Clinical Counseling instructor announced my secret to the world... well, to the class at least.

I don't remember the discussion that lead up to those precise words, but I admitted in front of the class that I was a secret feminist after a split second of comtemplation. He grinned as he said those words as if his gaydar picked me right up long ago. Just so you know... my passive gaydar also picked him up about 3 weeks prior to his outburst and his openness about this male partner. :)

Strangely enough, Dr. E reminds me of Client 10. His hard to gauge, tough cookie, in your face personality was strangely attractive to me. I guess it also helps that he's got a goatee and has a natural affinity to all things asian; except asian food. lol... "I hate asian food." Sure... he hates asian food, but definitely likes Korean BBQ.

His class instruction is so far from the norm that it actually caused two students to drop the class and two others to be all bent out of shape. Me? Psss... I know how to handle another Queen. He likes me and says "Thank you sir." when I leave his class. lol... I guess it takes a Queen, uhm Princess, to know how to handle another Queen.

So, what the hell is a "secret feminist"? I think he meant to say that I was gay, so I answered his statement with a double meaning; one to show my support for equality for women and two to state loud and clear "Yes, I'm gay. Wanna check me out?" LOL...

Gosh... class is so much more fun than work. It's a lot of work involved, but the people in my school are so selfless and friendly and wholesome. I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that we are all studying this medicine to be healers and not to become rich. As we all know, acupuncturist/Chinese medicine practioners only make around $20k to $30k the first few years we start our practice. It is not until our 10th year do we even get close to six figures.

Mr. Cutie is not a "secret feminist" since I saw him check out another chick's butt... well... then again, he looked me up and down one day. Hmm... bi maybe? In either case, Mr. Cutie might move to New Mexico in a year or so. His late grandfather left him a big grand house. Sigh... there goes any possibilities. I also found out that Mr. Cutie used to play competitive tennis in college. He actually went to college on a tennis scholarship. He had to retire his racket after a shoulder injury. He's no longer playing now, even though acupuncture and Chinese Medicine completely healed his shoulder and that he no longer needs surgery. What a waste! I bet he looks hot running around in tennis shorts. LOL...!!

Anyway... school is still awesome... still fun... still amazing... I'm still convinced that TCM is for me... I'm also feeling a sense of pride knowing that my mom and my sister both had treatments done by a former PCOM instructor and a PCOM graduate without actually knowing before hand.

My sister is still recovering from being hospitalized in the hospital for 4 days. The western doctors (a bunch of them) took four days of running a long list of tests before they could diagnosis what was causing her double vision. They finally concluded that her 3rd nerve in the brain, near her vision area was inflamed. They placed her on six days of an aggressive steriod treatment when they sent her home. On day six of the treatment, she still had double/blurry vision. Seeing that the steriods didn't do anything by day five, she went to have acupuncture done with my mom. After one session, she is seeing and driving again. The acupuncturist told my mom that there's nothing to worry about and that it'll take 2-3 treatments to restore my sister's vision.

Could it be that the steriods was finally kicking in on day six? Could be. Was it the acupuncture that restored her vision? I would like to think so. Did my tuina facial techniques relax her facial/eye muscles? I'm not sure. Maybe it wasn't one modality that was solely responsible for the miraculous outcome. Perhaps it was all collective...

So, what's the lesson here? Integrative Medicine.