This one was like torture!
I turned up at the alternative therapy clinic where I'd previously had acupuncture for IVF, it didn't help at all.
I waited in the reception room and a door opened and two women stepped out, the therapist and the client, closely followed by the pungent stench of moxa which resembles something like cigars and cannabis. I'd actually forgotten how overwhelming the smell was!
The therapist was the one who I was seeing so she called me into the room.
She acknowledged my bump, instructed me to sit at the desk and asked me how she could help me. I paused, assuming that she'd already know and of course she did but I answered anyway.
As I explained about my breech little madam, she made some notes but seemed a bit doubtful about what I hoped to achieve. She pointed out that her main concern that there was a reason for the baby to be breech but I explained there was no known reason so far. It only worked to fuel my expectation though.
I lay on the couch and she told me that she'd be be lighting two moxa sticks, which look a bit like fireworks to me but she described them as being like cigars, and then holding them against my little toes to stimulate energy points which should make baby more active and encourage her to turn.
This is where I became a bit scepical. She's already very active already and she was already kicking off at my being laid on my back like she always does.
What followed was basically a torturous cycle where she'd hold the sticks close to my toes and I'd have to tolerate them getting hotter and hotter until I'd yelp "hot!" and then she'd pause to flick off any ash and blow on the ends to reignite them before placing them at my toes once more.
I think the idea is that the heat increases with duration but I'm pretty sure that most of the time her hands were just moving too close and literally burning me.
I asked why moxa sticks were required and why I couldn't just put my little toes against a hot radiator and she was sensible enough to acknowledge it was a good question but didn't actually admit that she didn't know and instead chose to vaguely inform me that moxa nourishes the blood.
I also enquired if acupuncture would be better and she told me that there was an acupuncture point involved in the moxibustion but a needle would have too much of a severe response for it to be safe. You know I'm buying my own acupuncture needles when I get home!
Even though she had said that the treatment should last about 15-20mins, she was at it for 35mins to fill the 45min appointment. It wasn't relaxing at all and in fact by the end my toes actually felt a little burned.
Also, the room was thick with the smoke and I even started to wonder if it was any less harmful than cigarette smoke.
She gave me some moxa sticks to take home and told me it would be much cheaper to perform the therapy upon myself which I should do 4 times per day for 20 mins. This had already occurred to me so I purchased some sticks off Ebay for 75p each but still wanted to see the actual treatment performed before doing a DIY effort.
I stood up and left, baby fell back to sleep before I'd even gotten back into the car with her head in her very favourite place right between my ribs and I drove home smelling like a serious pot head and worrying about lung cancer.
The appointment was actually yesterday so today I attempted to recreate moxibustion with the help of James to hold the sticks in place and it was rubbish. Baby didn't give a crap, the smoke and smell was horrendous and me and James both felt a little bit sick afterwards as if we'd just sucked down a whole 20 pack between us.
I'm not going to do it again. The radiator seems like a good alternative and if that fails I can always stick myself with some needles, I'm a pro at that.
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