Not only am I addicted to Yelp, but I'm also addicted to Groupon! Hehe. Every morning when I wake up, those are two of the sites I check before getting out of bed!
One day, there was an offer posted on Groupon for two acupuncture sessions at Costa Acupuncture in Culver City. My neck and shoulders have been bothering me for over a year and nothing helps permanently. I've tried going through my insurance and doing physical therapy but that didn't do much. Boo on Kaiser.
I've been getting a few massages from Massage Revolution in Manhattan Beach and those seem to help for a day or two. Finally I decided to try acupuncture, and if that didn't work I was going to try going to a chiropractor. When I saw the deal on Groupon, I did a quick search on Yelp to check out the reviews for Costa and the reviews were actually really good! 4.5 stars out of five, and I didn't see too many fake reviews (those are easy to spot) a lot of the reviews were legit so, I purchased the groupon!
Fast forward a few months later, I decided to finally come in. What I like about Costa Acupuncture is that it was super easy to make an appointment online. You can choose the day you want to come in, and the time. And you're able to see what times are already booked. It's better than sending a random form online of when you ideally want to come in only to have them email you later saying the time is taken.
When I showed up for my appointment, it only took a few minutes to fill out some paperwork before I was taken to the back room to be worked on. The back room is a big room with many of those massage chairs where you can lay flat on as well as those big plushy massage chairs you'd see at a Brookstone. The room is dark, and when I went in there were already a few patients just resting and relaxing. What happens is, the doctor talks to you about what's going on, then puts the acupuncture needles into you. After the treatment, it is suggested that you lie there with the needles inside for 45 minutes to an hour, but you can lie there as long as you like.
The first time I went, I was a little scared of whether or not the needles would hurt. They weren't that bad. The doctor sterilized the sites where he would poke you so you knew where they were going. For me, they were put in my inner ankle area, on my hands, on my shoulders, and on top of my head! It didn't hurt too bad, and after the first treatment as well as the second the pain in my neck and shoulder were gone for most of the night. Unfortunately it came back the next morning.
I am a disbeliever of acupuncture but it actually worked for me temporarily. Although I'm sure if I continue the treatment it may work for longer. Not sure yet but I'm glad I came! It made me a believer!
Also, Costa is located in a pretty busy shopping mall, and both times I've gone there were not parking spots available. But it was pretty easy to find street parking. read more