I love my acupuncturist.

I know, how new-agey of me.

But after my son was born and I was suffering from some serious post-partum thyroiditis, this woman was my savior.



She took one look at my tongue, which was as I recall a pasty whitish-pinkish color, asked me how I was pooping, and felt my pulse for a while. That took all of 3 minutes and she pronounced that I had an imbalance in my heart and spleen.

"But what about my thyroid problem?" I pleaded.

That's just the symptom of the bigger problem, she explained. It will be no problem to balance out your heart and spleen, and then the thyroid will take care of itself.

She even gave me a 10-week plan, with milestones and all.

"You'll know if acupuncture is working for you in a couple of weeks," she said.

Well, it worked. Right on time, I lost weight, gained muscle, started - ahem- pooping regularly, and then dropped all my thyroid meds.

First she de-toxed me. Then she went to work on balance.

The acupuncture portion, if you must know, is like meditation. The needles are so tiny that I rarely felt them. Occassionally, I'd get a zinger when she put one in, like an electric current. It wasn't painful. It felt kind of cool. Electrifying.

Anyway. It's a year later and I am a true believer in Chinese medicine. Not as a replacement for western medicine, but as a good addition to it. Luckily, I have a great western doctor who agrees with me. When I have a cold, he prescribes the Neti pot and some meditation.