Acupuncture update

I’ve been feeling for some time like the acupuncture I get in Vienna with Dr. Zhu isn’t working really. The first two times it felt like it caused indigestion. The doctor thought it must have been coincidental. This time (5th time) my digestion was definitely fine before I went there – and I felt something happen while I was lying there with the needles in. Some feeling both in my gut and in my mid back, behind it. She did have a needle in my belly. It’s not digestion exactly but it's around there. It's still bothering me. I wonder what it is! Anyway I had continued to go to her because of the insurance, even though the results of her treatment haven’t ever wowed me. But today I made an appt. to see Dr. Tien on Monday. His treatments cost way more, but they work. I’ve had 3, and felt like a million dollars the next day, every time. I don’t know what it is, but he has it, and she… I’m just not sure she’s doing the right thing for me.

In the end, if his treatments cost 3-4x her treatments, and they work, and hers don't, it's a better value to go to him ANYway. If hers don't work EVER, I can't even do math about it! It's just a waste of time to go to her -- or worse, it may be causing problems. That's where I'm at now, anyway.

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I've got a biking update too. (Anyone reading this interested in hearing about my biking progress, or to I babble about it too much? COurse you can always skip it if you like. I think a couple of people are still reading.....)

I reached a new milestone yesterday, my first metric century since BC treatment -- 62 miles and change. Out to Leesburg and back on the trail. I did fine, and kept up with the group. (Can I tell you, my biking is SO MUCH BETTER since the hospital visit! A nurse called me today from the hospital to check on me and I told her about it -- told her they'd better keep an eye on their vancomycin or the Tour De France people will be after it!) Anyway I did great, but there were only 2 hills, and I was careful to stay on people's wheels anytime I felt like I might be tiring, so that I would keep up instead of dropping back.

The thing is, this was a training ride for the White's Ferry Loop next Wed. That's an 80 mile ride. I'd like to ride it. I've only done it once, a little over 2 years ago. It's a lovely ride, starting in VA, getting into rural MD, over a ferry, and back to VA with a stop at a lovely café for lunch, which serves lemonade sweetened with agave nectar in the summer. HOwever -- I don't remember how hilly it is. I just wasn't worried about hills last time I rode it -- as long as there were no plummetting downhills I was FINE. GOOD at uphills, in fact; I used to catch up on the uphills after having had everyone fly by me on the freefalls. But now.... If there's a hill here and there, I'll be able to stay with the group, I think, but rolling hills will really slow me down. Rolling hills are the worst, though, because I don't get a chance to catch up. I don't want to get dropped early on and be on my own.... but I also don't want people to feel stuck with waiting for me. So -- while I bet I can DO the ride, that's my dilemma.

ON the other hand, how else to increase my lung capacity so the healthy tissue can compensate for what's been lost, but to ride hills? I have already prepped the kids about accommodating the long day I will need for the ride next Wed. Matthew will have to catch his bus that morning, because I'll have to leave by 8-8:10am -- and Em will probably come home an hour or two before me.

Actually someone told me that there may be a swimming way to increase my lung strength -- breathing every other stroke instead of every stroke. I tried it today. It's hard! I could only do it for 4 strokes at a time. So I'll keep working on that.

I'm swimming stronger, too, BTW, since the hospital. ON Sat I swam 100 lengths -- I jsut wasn't DONE after a mile! Today I got into the water a little late, only 42 mins before the whistle. I usually swim a mile in 45 -- sometimes 50 mins. But I swam it in 40 today, and kept on going til the whistle.