Needles and crazy road signs – 27 March 2018
So….. the visit to TJ Wang was interesting. After a tortuous journey taking 3.5 hours rather than the SatNav predicted 2.5 hours, I arrived at the specified location for my appointment. I was accompanied on this particular mission by a very kind friend, in case I didn’t feel up to the long drive back. I am very lucky to be surrounded by many kind and supportive people.
Hidden in a residential side street of terraced houses just off the A12 is a veritable acupuncture production line. In a small outbuilding, behind one of the houses, TJ Wang has a constant stream of people coming in and out for acupuncture, often treating more than one person at a time. A most unlikely setting, I thought, for such a thing…. I was not put off, however and continued on my mission.
After a short consultation discussing my main symptoms (balance issues, general wobbliness, weakness in my right side, residual visual disturbance from 2 optic neuritis attacks), an inspection of my tongue (dry) and monitoring of my pulse (weak) he decreed I was a suitable candidate for his treatment which would be likely to help me. So I was whisked off to one of his treatment rooms to be transformed into a human pin cushion.
Needles were put into the top of my head (not painful, but uncomfortable) my stomach (hardly noticed) and the length of my right leg (didn’t notice at all as I have limited sensation there…). I was then left for approximately 20 minutes until TJ returned to remove the needles, I parted with £100 (£35 for the consultation, £65 for the acupuncture) and went on my way. Before I left, TJ was keen to schedule another appointment for me. I was less keen until I had worked out whether it had done me any good or not but he talked me into it and I have another appointment scheduled for the end of the month.
So…. did I feel any benefit? Well, a single treatment is unlikely to offer any long lasting improvement and in fact, TJ is recommending that I see him twice a week for 5 weeks as an intensive kick start with less frequent ‘maintenance’ sessions (fortnightly or monthly) on an ongoing basis. I am just not sure that I can face the travelling…. And I am not keen to move to Ilford. Anywhere that has to have roadsigns specifically to point out that ‘dogging’ is not acceptable worries me.
Anyway, back to the treatment. Yes, I think I did feel some benefit in the short term. I felt less unstable than I usually do for a couple of days after and walking felt like more of an automatic process rather than requiring the focus and concentration I usually have to give it (something only people with MS will understand….). But was it actually the treatment that made me feel better…? Or the desperate hope that it would? Difficult to know.
So I intend to keep my next appointment and see how I feel after that. And maybe I will go for the 5 week intensive course over the summer holidays when I have more time. We will see….
Next stop, the Taymount Clinic for FMT the day after tomorrow. Am I excited? Or nervous? A bit of both I think.