A long doctor visit

I got up about 8, unable to go back to sleep and just before Chris left for work. I exercised and checked e-mail. Faye skyped me. She shared an interesting idea that hot flashes are a way of the body saying it has to urinate. After the call, I went looking online for lily blocks for a baby quilt. I made a hand warmer to test for class tomorrow. As long as I was in my sewing room, I fixed my black pants. I ate some seed crackers, then took a shower and got dressed. I microwaved the handwarmer and put it in my pocket. I bundled up and walked out with yoga blocks in my bag. As I was walking down the hill, I could hear footsteps behind me. The lady greeted me and I did not know her. I think she said her name was Tammy, and they brand new, but not the Tammy I met on Friday. I invited her to the sewing group, then hurried to the gate to catch the bus, but Ms. Chong beeped her horn at me. I stopped to say hello and she asked me where I was going. She offered to take me to the acupuncturist so she could see where the office was. She parked around the corner from the office. We went in. I was half an hour early, but the nurse ushered me right to his office. There was a bed in there. I laid down. She put the leg massagers on and walked out. I relaxed and enjoyed that part. Then she came back and turned the machine off, removing the leg sleeves. That was unusual. The doctor came in. He gave me a list of what is good to eat. I am not sure exactly how the rest of the visit went. He was in and out of the office so we spoke in segments:
The Dr. said I am not a big yang person after all, I am a small yang person. That means that I have the right amount of yang, but it is concentrated above my diaphragm, creating heat there and leaving my extremities cold. He put in the needles and left. When he came back, he showed me a drawing in a book. It was a man with bands or straps around his body at intervals from the pelvis, up to his eyes. He said it was not the meridian system of medicine, more like the chakra system. He asked some questions. Then he typed something into his computer and the translation was “Menopausal disorder”. Duh. At some point he said acupuncture does not work for this kind of hot flash. He said these symptoms would last for three years, then I could eat anything I want, but no spicy food now. I could not understand what all he was trying to say so I called Suzanne, who did not answer, then Ms. Chong. She told me he was saying I could take an herbal remedy for 1 week then come back and answer questions. A week supply was 90,000 won. We talked some more. He gave me a questionnaire but it was in Korean. He crumbled up the food list and threw it away. I asked about my back. He had me sit on the bed with my knees bent outward and my feet together. One knee was higher than the other. He said my right psoas muscle is not working and the cure would be painful. I looked doubtful, so he said he would try a not-painful needle first. He treated my right hip, taking the needles out almost as soon as he put them in. But afterward, my right knee was still higher. He treated the left hip. It hurt. Then he mentioned the painful needle. I had had enough needles so I said I was feeling much better. I walked out to pay. I felt lop-sided. After paying, I walked outside. I used the public restroom. I wanted to stop at the market for apples, but, feeling lop-sided, I decided walking home with a heavy load was not a good idea. Was I really lop-sided or was I finally normal and just used to being lop-sided? I went to the bus stop. It said bus 305 was 20 stops away, so I started walking instead. But a few stops down, 305 passed me. It had to stop at a traffic light and I was able to make it to the next bus stop and rode it back to base. I walked up the hill, passing Anna on her way somewhere. When I got home, I looked up bands and straps but did not find anything like what I saw in his book. I wished I had taken a picture of it. I jotted down everything I could remember him saying, though possibly not in the right order. I pulled lily fabrics from my collection. I ironed the fabric from Guam and fixed the red bag. It looked like someone else had tried to fix it. I finished up a long tapping article, then watched a video on ho-oponopono. Chris came home from work late. He made himself a burrito. I ate a banana, then read articles in my e-mail. When Chris was ready, we watched the last two episodes of Terra Nova. It was good and I was sorry there was not a second season. Apparently several million people agree with me. I posted to my blog and went to bed, hoping to sleep.
* This is the contact dermatitis I got in Guam. The doctor noticed it, and when I told him where I got it, he said he had been to Guam, too. *