Something New to Worry About

At my acupuncture appointment this morning, P was impressed with my progress. I'm happy to say that the sciatica is much less troublesome. It twinges now and then, but the constant pain is gone. (Knock wood, hard!) I have one more appointment, and then I'll check in with the spine specialist.

P has a knack for saying things out of the blue, and after months of treatment I'm rather used to it by now. But today was a doozy. I was lying there, face down on the table, getting stuck with the needles (which isn't as bad as it sounds, really) when he starts asking about my monthly cycles. Ok, I thought, as I answered -- not sure what this has to do with my bad back, but whatever. I then asked why he wanted to know. He replied, as he stuck a needle into the area of my sacrum: "My master always taught that a woman's buttocks should be warm. Your skin here is rather cool."

So there you have it: my ass isn't hot enough. That, apparently, is the source of my troubles.

(To be fair, even though it was hard to resist the urge to debate gender stereotypes with him, it isn't necessarily as wacky as it sounds. And P really does talk like that all the time -- "My master teaches this.... my master says such and such...." so even though I'm used to it, it's a little odd to put down in writing. He went on to explain about hormonal imbalances and energy centers, some of which was rather crunchy but some of which made sense. And if my circulation is poor, as it can be, that might well play into all of this. Interestingly enough, I did just start a different birth control pill this cycle, and I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the result. His advice was to sit on a heating pad "in my free time." Yes, I guffawed at that -- the "free time" part -- but I'll give it a try. So I'm off to watch the Olympics and warm my chilly butt.)