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truepennyThis morning, the orthopedist gave me the all clear to start getting rid of the walking boot.
Yeehaw! says I.
I spent part of this afternoon calling first my HMO (which does not cover acupuncture treatments) and then the acupuncture clinic which is within walking distance. The acupuncturist was very nice and perfectly honest. The answer here, as with everything else about RLS, is "Maybe." Which, at $60 a session, is a rather expensive ambivalence.
But I note two things:
1. My GP's nurse offered to put in a referral to a neurologist, but warned me it takes 6 to 8 weeks to get an appointment. Also, when I asked, she said it was about 50/50 whether they'd be able actually to help or not. So, neurology offers no better odds than acupuncture.
2. The acupuncturist talked about chi and blood stasis, as opposed to the orthopedist, who said essentially, "Nobody knows why," but they agreed that the return to normal motion should make the RLS quiet down.
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mirrorthaw at work, and we agreed that the best thing was to wait until after WFC: give the increased dosage of Requip and my new and very exciting mobility a chance to work before we try other, expensive and/or time consuming options which may or may not do anything anyway. And hope that something starts working before I run out of Vicodin, because I don't think my GP's going to give me any more. At least now, though, if I need to get up in the middle of the night, I can just go ahead and damn well get up, without having to plan it out like a land war in Asia.
In the meantime, even though I'm having a lousy day on other health fronts (ME: Meat, is this nausea really necessary? MEAT: Bleah.), I am absolutely loving the fact that I'm wandering around the house barefoot. It's like a freaking dream come true.
Yeehaw! says I.
I spent part of this afternoon calling first my HMO (which does not cover acupuncture treatments) and then the acupuncture clinic which is within walking distance. The acupuncturist was very nice and perfectly honest. The answer here, as with everything else about RLS, is "Maybe." Which, at $60 a session, is a rather expensive ambivalence.
But I note two things:
1. My GP's nurse offered to put in a referral to a neurologist, but warned me it takes 6 to 8 weeks to get an appointment. Also, when I asked, she said it was about 50/50 whether they'd be able actually to help or not. So, neurology offers no better odds than acupuncture.
2. The acupuncturist talked about chi and blood stasis, as opposed to the orthopedist, who said essentially, "Nobody knows why," but they agreed that the return to normal motion should make the RLS quiet down.
I bothered
mirrorthaw at work, and we agreed that the best thing was to wait until after WFC: give the increased dosage of Requip and my new and very exciting mobility a chance to work before we try other, expensive and/or time consuming options which may or may not do anything anyway. And hope that something starts working before I run out of Vicodin, because I don't think my GP's going to give me any more. At least now, though, if I need to get up in the middle of the night, I can just go ahead and damn well get up, without having to plan it out like a land war in Asia.In the meantime, even though I'm having a lousy day on other health fronts (ME: Meat, is this nausea really necessary? MEAT: Bleah.), I am absolutely loving the fact that I'm wandering around the house barefoot. It's like a freaking dream come true.
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no subject
Date: 2010-10-21 01:26 pm (UTC)One of the things with acupuncture clinics though is that they don't want to give you a session and then see you again the next time you have a problem. They want you to sign up to go every week for weeks. But usually you don't need to -- usually with nerve stuff, one session will do a lot, and then a second will sort it out. I've had a lot of acupuncture partly out of the belief that if two sessions does all this if I keep going my leg will just get better and I'll be able to run, but in fact it isn't magic and doesn't work that way.
So these days I'm firm and make two appointments, and that's what I'd suggest. $120 to be sleeping properly? Well worth it. (With the concussion I had three, because they wanted me to have a third to "put my head and body back in alignment" -- that third session made me so stoned I walked out without paying and came home with my t-shirt on backwards and slept all afternoon. I don't know if my head and body were aligned, but I haven't had a problem since.)