I’ve been having a bit of back pain lately, in two places. A sharper pain in the lower back, and a muscle pain in the mid. So I decided to go to the doctor on base just to get an opinion. This is how it works for me — I go to the base hospital because it’s close and convenient, but I’m really looking for an opinion rather than a full-blown diagnosis and cure. For the tougher stuff, I go up to Seoul.
Anyway, I’m talking to the doctor, and she’s thinking about prescribing a few things for me, and I’m not really convinced. I’ve taken a disliking to medication when I think it’s just going to cover up the issue rather than cure it.
But then she says, “have you ever heard of ‘battlefield acupuncture‘?”
Of course not.
I was interested, but maybe she was used to people being reluctant, because she sounded like she was trying to convince me. We talked a bit, and I said, “why not,” so away we go.
It’s 5 small darts in each ear. I bit more uncomfortable than having your ear flicked really hard — a loud “snap” and a pinch, and that’s it. The only one that actually hurt was number 10. The result? Well, I thought I was feeling better right away, but then again, I told her it could very well be a placebo effect. I told her I’d wait and see.
And it turns out, it didn’t work on my mid-back muscular pain. Still had it.
But come to think of it, I can’t say that I’ve felt any lower back pain since the needles went in. I’ll give it a little more time before I make up my mind, but it seems to be working…at least for half of the pain. The biggest problem is that you don’t even notice the needles really, until you try to put earbuds in. Or your ear itches and you reach up to scratch it and snag one of the needles (they’re little 14k gold balls that will fall out in a few days). Then it’s quite the surprise.
So we’ll see how it goes. It certainly is interesting.