I gave up gluten almost a year ago and while some things are better, others are worse. I didn’t feel great eating gluten of course, but I knew what to expect and when; my body coped and found a way to function. It found a slightly off kilter equilibrium. Now with gluten removed, my body is free to heal, free to absorb what it has done without for so long. Only my body doesn’t know how to handle not being under attack every day, like a vet returning from a war, my body can’t adjust to a peaceful sunny day. It actually worked better – at least on the surface – when it was being poisoned everyday.
There are even addiction-like experiences: the cravings – for Philly soft pretzels specifically; the dreams – I can not count how many times French bread has made an appearance in my unconscious mind; and of course physical pain. It’s nothing nearly as dramatic as a recovering crack addict, but to be blunt, it still sucks.
Several questions run around in my mind when the intense pain hits, such as how long do I have to wait until I feel better, and is there any way to press a fast forward button? But it’s the simple statement that I came to realize when the pain took a breather that led me to acupuncture. It was simply, I feel off balance.
When it comes to pain relief I will try anything (legally) available. So it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t my first time trying acupuncture to improve my health. The difficult thing about acupuncture is that it’s not like getting a dose of penicillin or a steroid shot. In those cases it doesn’t matter who administers the cure, sure you might wind up with a bruise if the nurse is a bit careless, but you’ll get what you need; relief. With acupuncture though, relief all comes down to your acupuncturist. I’ve had one that knew what she was doing, able to tell me my symptoms before I told her. Unfortunately, while she could tell me of the stomach pains and headaches she couldn’t see that gluten was the culprit and so while the pain eased it did not disappear. I tried again a few years later and the moment he pulled out the body chart – not for my benefit but for his own – I gave up for what I thought would be forever.
Now I’m back for one more try. It’s hard not to get hopeful, especially when she knew exactly what I was trying to explain. Explaining in a more succinct way than I could that my body simply needed to adjust. It was trying to recalibrate, in fits and starts; firing hormones and adrenaline in all the wrong amounts at all the wrong times. So I lay on the table in the dim light with about twenty needles in various locations. Despite still being full from a breakfast I had less than an hour previous, my stomach growled, gurgled and made all sorts of noises that would make a child giggle. Then the acupuncturist turned the needles, an experience that unless you’ve had done, is very difficult to explain. The best I can offer is to imagine pinching a piece of taut cloth between two fingers and turning your fingers ninety degrees. The way the cloth twists with your fingers, gathering a bit without losing is tautness, is the image I think of as she turns the needles. It’s not painful; it’s just, to put it simply, weird.
Not being a stranger to this I expected the migraine that followed. I didn’t expect it to last three days, nor did I expect the roller coaster of emotion I felt on that first day. Does it mean that it’s working, that it’s pulling all the way to the left to pull my right-leaning body in the center? Like I said, I am not trying to be too hopeful. Still, it’ll be nice to stand straight.
No comments:
Post a Comment