My tennis elbow, coupled with golfer’s elbow, is not getting any better with the 5 sessions I have had with my South African physiotherapist. So today I saw Gilson, a colleague of my physio, to try acupuncture. A session costs £43, but I have to check the bill from BUPA when it arrives as the last bill I had for my physio was £65. The reason I’ve mentioned the fee is because I have already max’d my 2006 allowance on physiotherapy. For my consultation with Gil, I will be paying it out of my monthly allowance. And he said I might have at least 6 sessions! A painful void in my wallet is beginning to form.

I thought acupuncture is still considered an “alternative” treatment. Apparently it has long been considered scientific. Gilson, who is black African & I doubt has a drop of Chinese blood in him, started explaining how the needles work. After a 5-minute scientific explanation, he then shrugged his shoulders & started talking about how the Chinese presents acupuncture to the world, all the Qi & mystery of maintaining the flow of energy in the body. He obviously prefers the scientific explanation better because I had the feeling he resents talking about Qi & it was like I was forcing him to. But I never said a word — I was bored.

I wanted to flick my fingers on my wristwatch & tell him time is gold as I still need to go to work. My appointment with him was 8am & from that hospital, it will take me one & half hour to get to the City.

Anyway, I ended taking my top off & having him stick 4 needles in my back (which is really tense & very “lumpy”. Two went to the clavicle area, one went near the spine (”middle section”, the last on top of my right shoulder. He added 4 more needles: 3 around the elbow area & one “point” on my hand. I stayed in position for 10 minutes & it was done — £43.

He handed me an info sheet (an sop in this part of the world) on acupuncture & informed me we’ll be doing exercises to ease my tense shoulder muscles. I readily agreed. I knew I have to pick up my exercise routine in the near future.

I haven’t coughed up the dough to pay Gilson, the post will surprise me. But the needle-effect, the info sheet says, may take up to a week to see/feel any results. And that in most cases, the first session rarely makes any difference. Good grief!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2006 at 1:18 pm and is filed under rsi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.