Wow. I am in total awe of my experience with Jen. In my initial visit, she performed both acupuncture and cupping on me. I went in with two main problem areas: my neck and back. My neck was a 6 on a pain scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. I put my lower back pain at a 5.
Jen's office is pretty with cheerful paintings and cool artwork covering the walls, and it's spotless. She has several teas to choose from as well as a few traditional Chinese medicine books to keep you busy in the waiting room. I started my visit filling out paperwork that covered my medical issues and history. Jen brought me back to a private room to discuss my paperwork and what exactly I was looking for in this visit. We decided to start with a few acupuncture needles, see how I reacted to them and then try cupping on my back. She then gave me a hospital gown and left the room for me to put it on with the opening in the back.
Jen explained everything she was going to do so there were no surprises. I appreciated that. Being my first time trying acupuncture, I was a little apprehensive. She had me sit on the table and cleaned the top of my arms with alcohol pads. She asked me to let her know when I felt a sensation, noting it didn't need to be painful, just when I could feel something. She started with one needle in each of my wrists. Then, she put pressure on my inner elbows to determine where the next needles should go. She asked how my neck felt, and I couldn't believe it, but the pain was nearly gone. She tweaked the needles a little, and the remaining pain subsided. It was astonishing. Jen did say she "works magic and quicker than Tylenol" and it's true!
I stayed sitting on the table with the needles in my arms and she brought out the cupping equipment. The first cups went on the top of my back near my back. She adjusted them because they were a little uncomfortably tight. Jen said when people do cupping for the first time, it's best to use less pressure.
The cups went all over my whole back. You can feel the skin being sucked into them. It's not awful, more of a good pain, and you can tell it's doing something, just hurt subtly. She left the cups in a few minutes. You might have seen pictures of what this looks like. If you haven't, each cup leaves a pink, red, or purple circular dot where it was placed. When I looked at my back in the mirror, I counted 26 spots. Jen said to watch for which spots get the darkest. This is an indicator of the areas that needed treatment the most. She recommended an Epsom salt bath and plenty of water to help draw the toxins out of the skin.
Next, with the cups out, Jen had me lay on my back and rubbed alcohol pads over the tops of my legs and forehead. I still had the needles in my arms from earlier. She put one needle in between my eyebrows, and one on the outside of each ear. When the one on my forehead hurt, she very slightly moved the needle so it didn't hurt anymore.
Moving down, Jen stuck a few needles in the top of my legs. She ended up using 17 total needles all over my body. Then she put a heat lamp over my feet, put on some calming music, dimmed the lights, and closed the door. My only job was to lay there and relax. At some point she came in, tweaked a couple needles and left. When she came back, she took out all the needles, and I was done. I was really surprised that my back pain was gone. It was absolutely amazing.
Jen did instruct me that even though I felt fantastic, to not do anything crazy like run a ton of miles. As far as coming back, she explained that if someone has experienced chronic pain in certain areas of their body, it's best to come back more frequently. Soon, your body will adjust, and you may not need to come back so often.
My visit was six days ago, and today I would put my neck pain at a 2, and my back at a 5. I would love to go back and do this again. Most of the dots from the cupping have faded, but they're still slightly noticeable. All in all, this was a great experience, and I highly recommend Jen's practice. Kudos to Jen and her incredible work! read more