Acupuncture follow-up

For my first Acupuncture treatment, I decided to go to Cedar City Community Acupuncture, located south of Maverick on 200 S and Main. There is a one-time $10 paperwork fee on your first visit and a sliding fee scale starting at $15 for the treatment. The treatments are done in a community or group setting consisting of about 5 recliners clustered together in a room. This is supposedly how traditional Acupuncture is done in Asia, the benefits being lower treatment costs and making it easy for you to get your treatment at the same time as a friend or family member.

The Office
The new patient paperwork consisted of about 15 pages of a very thorough medical history and asking very specific questions about your complaints. After I finished this, I waited for about 5 minutes for the Acupuncturist, Carol Levesque, to look over my intake, determine the best combination of points to best help my complaints, and prepare new needles for me (she uses single-use needles and opens a sterile, sealed package for each patient.)
I was escorted to the treatment room which is adjacent to the reception area and hidden behind curtains. The room had dimmed lights and soft music, much like a massage room, and blankets are provided if you get cold. A lot of people I know would probably find the place a little... how to put it... hippy-dippy. I'm used to that kind of thing I suppose, so I didn't mind. I was then asked a few more questions about my complaints then the treatment started.

The Treatment
I was surprised to find that the only needles I even felt were on the tops of my feet. Other placements included the inside of my left ankle, outside of my right ankle, just below my right knee, one below the elbow, middle of the forearm, and between the thumb and finger on both arms, the middle of my chest just below where the collarbones meet, between my eyes, at my hairline, and right on the top of my head. I requested a blanket for my feet, and Carol was very careful not to disturb the needles in my feet and ankles while wrapping them. I found it fairly relaxing and spent most of the time (a little less than an hour) with my eyes closed. I have not noticed any obvious effects yet, but will update again in a few days if I note any changes in my initial complaints.

The Setting
When I got into the treatment room, there were two other chairs being occupied. I was really uncomfortable talking about my health issues with non-personnel strangers in the room. We also realized that Carol is an old acquaintance of my family so she asked a lot of questions about my parents and siblings. That's to be expected, but also very awkward with other people in the room. I would have loved to have fallen asleep and came very close more than a few times, only to be jolted awake by the phone ringing, the door opening, or another patient getting their treatment started. Not that any of these noises were very loud, but I'm a light sleeper. Also, as hard as I tried to fall back asleep, I couldn't help but hear conversations about other patients' health issues. Again, I felt very awkward and uncomfortable. Since I wasn't able to sleep, I started getting pretty bored and antsy by the time Carol came back to take the needles out. Note to self: bring a book next time!

Overall
While I plan on trying Acupuncture again, I'm not sure I will go back to Cedar City Community Acupuncture. I can understand the intended benefits of having a community setting, but after growing up having private interviews with doctors and learning the importance of privacy in my massage practice, I just didn't like it. In the future will make an appointment with Dr. Holcomb at Cedar Natural Health and do another update when that happens.

P.S. - For those of you who were wondering (you know who you are!), this did not happen:

3/4/11 Update

Last night I slept very well. I typically do sleep well but the past few days have had a hard time getting comfortable. I didn't notice a significant difference in my stress levels, but I usually have a major problem with clenching my jaw without realizing it. It's been mostly relaxed all day (even after a very intense gossip session!)

Without getting into too much detail (if you really want to know, go ahead and ask but I won't post it), the biggest effect I've noticed is a reduction in premenstrual symptoms.