The Stairway to Relief is Located in Chinatown

Several years ago, I was diagnosed with allergies to cat dander, pollen, and dust mites.  Starting in college, each September 1st brought a sinus infection.  Once I moved to Boston, both September and March 1st brought a sinus infection.  Fortunately, my allergies aren’t nearly as bad as Hollie’s.  Still, ugh, what a pain.  For the past year and a half, I’ve been taking one Claritin per day and have been (relatively) allergy free.  Yahoo!  Still, it’s a bother to take a pill every single day.

I’ve heard of various different allergy treatments that ‘cure’ an individual of their allergy and it’s finally time to get started!  Now is the right time to ponder how much trust should anyone should bestow in their colleagues.  Would you take a recommendation for a beer, a restaurant, or perhaps a financial consultant?  Of course!  But, would you trust them to recommend a Chinese Acupuncturist armed with a limitless supply of needles?  Eh, why not!?  I’m game.  Let’s try acupuncture!  Off to Chinatown we go! 
As you can see, my faith in my colleagues was put to the test relatively early in the experience.  Still, I pressed forth.

Once inside the temple of doom, I learned my fate.  Sigh.  My qi is blocked.  Yup.  My qi.  Another sigh.  My liver meridian is lacking balance and is easily agitated (hence the allergic reaction).  Further, an imbalance in my stomach meridian is causing me to store stress in my jaws(!).  The man in the white coat prescribed two months of acupuncture (starting immediately) and three diet changes:

1. Replace water with lemon water
2. Replace coffee with special tea
3. No dairy

The diet changes are easy.  They’re closer to a continuation of my recent diet than anything else.  I was sweating the acupuncture, though.  I did it anyhow.  I ended up with about 30 needles.  I couldn’t feel some of the needles.  The other, however, felt exactly like having a needle driven into my body.  Go figure.  There was a tie for the worst needle.  It was either the one in the webbing of my two littlest right toes or the one that went in the front muscle of my left shin.

So what do I have to show for it?  Puncture marks on my face and an appointment for next week!  I’m totally skeptical but will give it a fair shot.  If this doesn’t work, I might try the western type of medicine (and needles).