Surgery on my elbow?

Not for now. I have been working on alternatives for my tennis elbow and though getting a cortisone shot does work, it really does nothing to correct the problem. If you'll remember, I said I was far from a believer in Acupuncture. I mean, really, part of the word is "puncture" for god's sake. The only other time I use "puncture" is to talk about something making my tire flat.

Pain makes us do odd things so I found a Acupuncturist and though I had doubts, gave him a try. My insurance, using some strange insurance wisdom, doesn't cover anything such as this. No, they'd rather spend thousands for surgery and then more on six weeks or so of therapy to help me get over the surgery. Where is the sense? After one visit to Dr. Needles and Pins I felt better and after three, I couldn't say I was cured, but I felt enough relief to cancel any plans for conventional surgery.

Why or how does it work? Hell if I know nor do I care if he'd held a dead chicken over me and set fire to something; I just know the morning after the first treatment I awoke with no swelling. No swelling. It had been swollen for months. Months of physical therapy, which was doing no good at all, and the insurance company will gladly pay for. Months of taking medicine for the pain. Months of ice.

Does it still hurt? Yes, it is stiff when I don't use it. I probably could have taken a few more treatments but felt the cost was prohibitive. Like I said, a little stiffness that can be rubbed out is not too much for me to handle. At some time will I go back? Yes. An emphatic, YES! If it gets bad again. For now, I'll wait. But I might have convinced my darling companion to have Dr Needles and Pins look at his back. Now that, would be amazing.

Flashing knives

We are looking to squeeze a trip to the beach this week. It takes a fair amount of planning on our part, the 5th wheel is not stored on our property and with two RVs I'm always robbing one. Oh, I have two sets of the basics but I'm always forgetting some of the odd things, like the cribbage board and a deck of cards. We like to play cards when we're camping but I find it odd we never do at home. I guess there are too many distractions.

We only have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning then I'm off to the Getty Center. I don't dare be missing as it is the tail-end of tourist season and we've been packed the last few weeks. All the docents love doing what we do, geeze, we do volunteer, but by September we are longing for one of those days without 100 people in an hour in the sketching gallery.

Some quiet time at the beach will give me time to contemplate my need for surgery for my lateral epicondylitis, I love saying that, makes me feel smart but it's really just "tennis elbow." My orthopedic wants me to have it as well as my therapist but I'm looking for an alternative and acupuncture seems to be successful for some. I'll be seeing a doctor next week when we get back from camping. After the six weeks with my broken wrist I'm wary to have surgery but when the pain gets unbearable, I'll be forced to go under the knife.

Anyone had an experience with acupuncture? I'm usually a skeptic when it comes to stuff like this but very interested in a first-hand report.