I've been getting acupuncture for a few weeks to see if it can do anything for - too much information alert! Guys, you might want to change the channel now! - my menstrual cramps. I couldn't say if it has made any difference for me yet, but maybe it will take a few cycles to sort things out. Anything that doesn't involve me doubled up, crying, and sucking back the Advil every 4 hours is good in my book. She did give me these cool Moxibustion patches to stick to my tummy - they heat up and are pretty soothing. I love the heat pads Playtex makes that stick to the outside of my undies and heat through, rather than to my skin the way these do, but the Moxibustion ones have a therapeutic herbal component that apparently stimulate the appropriate areas like when they do it with the needles.

The Doctor totally thinks I'm a stress-monkey, though. She's not incorrect, but I just wish it weren't so obvious. We were chatting about how tight my neck and shoulders are and I just mentioned several times that it's due to my job. She said to me quietly, 'it's not all the job, Kate.' And I was like, 'oh.' She then did this weird scraping thing that left my shoulders and neck all bruised but I think they felt better the next day. I seem to have almost full range of motion again when I shoulder check in the car. She made up some sort of tincture for me which I think is supposed to be calming but I'm wary of calm and relaxation. They just interfere with my efficiency...