Before my race I wanted to be a little looser and a little more relaxed so I increased my acupuncture visits to twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Last week was full of all sorts of adventures there. First on Tuesday all the staff members were coming in to talk with me now, I couldn’t understand a single word they were saying but oh well, and I think it had a lot to do with the fact that I trimmed by beard almost all the way down (Grandma and Mom are probably thanking St. Anthony on that one) and I’ve now come to realize that there’s been two different Korean experiences. One with the beard and one without, but that’s mainly for another blog post. Anyways, they went on and on and finally one of the older ladies (not super old, just older comparatively asked “God, you believe?” I kinda chuckled to myself for a brief moment because this seemed a fairly random question to ask a patient, but I nodded my head and answered yes, in Korean. Then on Thursday they were being super nice again and the appointment was taking forever, luckily I went in with plenty of time before work and I had already done most of my prep work, as it was probably a 2 and a half hour appointment. There was also a sub doctor that week as the primary one was on Jeju Island giving medical services to the poor, I was told.
Then on Thursday it was a long session again when towards the end of it they brought another guy that was getting acupuncture onto the other bed that’s in the stall (for lack of a better word). They had just found out that he used to teach English in the elementary schools (now he teaches PE). He introduced himself, and he spoke English beautifully, probably moreso than me sometimes, anyways he asked me how I long I had been here, but was quickly cut off by the staff as they had a plethora of questions to ask him to ask me. The first was “How old are you?” Followed by “Are you married?” “How long have you been in Korea?” Then just went on and on. Apparently to them I look like someone from a tv show, although I have no earthly idea who it’d be. Also funny was them asking the gentleman to ask me to guess how old they were. I took some honest guesses but was off by at least 7 years too young in most of their cases. That really wasn’t the case of trying to flatter them, but honest attempts. They finally had him ask me why I had stopped getting treatment in my knee. I told him that I felt relief in my back, but my knee I wasn’t really feeling the benefits. He explained that he comes for his hands and that for joints it seems to take much longer.
This week my usual doctor was back and Tuesday’s session was long again and my knee was done again as I was instructed to roll up my pant legs. I think the ladies had told him I was still having pain there. I then took out my cell phone and showed him the text that had my running time on it, as I thought this would be easier for him to understand than for me to explain that I run, a lot. He read it and then nodded his head and in almost perfect English asked “where does it hurt?” Wow I’d been coming here for a while but glad we’re finally getting to where it hurts in my knee. I pointed to my patella and he pushed on it and I winced, no language barrier there. Then he massaged it in a very aggressive manner and there was definitely more wincing. He then looked up and goes “over worked”. I got a kick out of that as it’s what I hear everytime. Anyways so he began to throw pins in it and he put them in different spots now that he’s located the pain to being in my patella. The other teacher was back towards the end of this session and we chatted a little bit. He’s got two little girls which he’s got a big goofy smile whenever he talks about them and he’s been to the state’s a couple of times.
Thursday’s session was a little different as I didn’t get a hot pack or a massage before the doctor saw me, I guess he was free, he popped the crap out of my spine though and it felt incredible. Then I’m laying there feeling the relaxing bliss setting in and the back of my shorts was rolled down a little bit, maybe two inches (whatever that is in centimeters over here). He then started at the base of my spine and put a pin in each vertebrate. WOW. I felt like a million bucks and it wasn’t long before I was drooling not even caring that these ladies that I had just gotten to know the other day were walking by with part of my bare hind quarters hanging out. I WAS OUT. Thank goodness they didn’t set a timer on that round like they sometimes do because that would’ve woken me up, but evidently as one of the ladies told me later they came by and were going to take them out but tapped me and I didn’t wake up so decided to give me another fifteen minutes of relaxation. God Bless them because I went to class feeling like a rockstar. I’ll definitely be requesting the vertebrate treatment every once and a while. I don’t want to get stingy and get it every time as the other methods are effective too, but that one, oh buddy it works great.
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