Acupuncture & Knee Injuries

Last Friday, I had my third and final acupuncture appointment for the knee injury I sustained at the beginning of July, and I'm pleased (and quite surprised) to report that my knee is now fully healed. No surgery. No prescription pharmaceuticals. No painful physical therapy.

No, instead Muki Ramsey (B.A., M.S.O.M., L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.) at Zen Medicinals did some (in his own words) "really masterful work" on my left knee, inserting 38 gauge needles, thinner than human hairs. The needles were painless. I've had glucose meter sticks that have elicited MUCH more of a sting. As Muki adjusted each one to stimulate my Chi, I'd feel a SURGE - sometimes surged DOWN the leg, sometimes ran up it, sometimes it felt like a pair of pliers was pull UP on the skin even though I could SEE there were no pliers and nothing was being pulled. First visit made me 85% better - as I walked out. 2nd visit made me 95% better 4 days later. The third visit last Friday, 99.997% better (a 3 sigma confidence level).

For 2 weeks, I hobbled around popping Naproxin Sodium and applying cold packs, and it wasn't getting better. 3 acupuncture visits, and I am pain free, able to swim, ride the stationary bike, do difficult yoga poses... so in celebration, and because Zen Medicinals is not far from the Desert Botanical Garden (DBG), I walked all around the garden for my "lunch hour" on Friday before driving back home to the West side. This photo is my new "favorite spot" in the garden. I sat reading a dozen pages of "Stones Into Schools" there, in the shade, next to the bubbling fountain. Last year I sat at a similar bubbling fountain in the garden before they remodeled it, and watched a hummingbird hover and drink from the stream. No hummingbirds drinking from the fountain last Friday, but a great respite nevertheless.

Muki told me that "knees and shoulders are easy, elbows are alot harder, I think we can get your knee back into shape in probably 3 visits." He was right.

Later this year, I am going to let Muki make an attempt to "cure me" of my cat allergies. He's mentioned a electromagnetic diagnostic machine that proven to have a P value less than 0.005 (link here) ... and it can help to fine tune allergy therapy when combined with acupuncture.
"90% of all patients received some degree of remission (18% full remission, 72% partial) and only 10% reported no improvement" ... after a year of getting traditional cat & mold allergy injections into my triceps in 2008 from a local allergist, all it did was make me itchy, reducing none of my symptoms, and in fact, when I ceased getting them 2009, my upper arms erupted in red hives for about a month. Let's see what my acupuncturist & herbal medicine practitioner can do - especially now that I've met my deductible for the year! =)