The Midlife Nurse

I’ve had my first proper acupuncture experience today.

It hurt. Well, that’s not strictly true – it hurt around the pain point and emotion point. No where else though.

Did I enjoy it? Did it work? Don’t know and don’t know. BUT…..

It has given me pause for thought.

My acupuncturist is a trained nurse so that immediately makes me feel at ease and more trustworthy of the process, and she was able to pick up issues surrounding my kidneys that she couldn’t possibly have known. the areas where I felt most discomfort wrre physical and emotional pain – again standard areas for me, but definitely my body doing it’s thing and not the skill of the therapist!

I decided against medical advice, to stop all my pain relief medication in favour of trying something more holistic, more alternative and more expensive 🙄. I’m making it sound like a con 😂 but the reality is I absolutely believe there has to be another way to manage pain – be it emotional or physical pain – and I’m not sure that suppressing emotions nor chucking a load of pharma at one’s body is actually productive.

Chinese medicine is known to look at the cause of disease from it’s origin, whereas much western medicine treats symptoms once they are apparent.

I will be looking into mindfulness to heal my emotions, friendships to heal my soul, and alternative medicine and lifestyle modification to heal my body. Thats not to say I’m changing who I am or my usual habits – goodness me!!! Little modifications 🤪

So far reducing alcohol consumption has been productive (am not giving it up!!!) – I’m not sleeping well but let’s not forget that sadly my menopause hasn’t gone away with my pain medication 😂 but it’s almost the last thing on my mind with all these aching joints. Anxiety wise? I’m doing my best.

By all accounts acupuncture is a valid alternative to pharma and definitely worth a shot so I will be pursuing this, alongside some other options such as turmeric and black pepper lattes and a more herbal introduction into my diet.

There are NICE clinical guidelines whereby acupuncture can be practised for long term chronic pain https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng193/chapter/Recommendations and it is available on the nhs in some cases. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/acupuncture/