{"id":837,"date":"2010-10-04T09:36:59","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T17:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/?p=837"},"modified":"2010-10-04T09:36:59","modified_gmt":"2010-10-04T17:36:59","slug":"accupuncture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/04\/accupuncture\/","title":{"rendered":"Accupuncture"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When I was in chemo I tried nearly every holistic and western medical treatment. Yoga? Of course. Poison? You bet. Steroids? If you think so. Massage? Oh twist my arm. Vitamins? Definitely. Chi gong? Sure, sure. I was live experimentation at its best. When I started chemo I went to an acupuncturist and my sessions seemed fine, restful enough, and pleasant but I didn\u2019t know if they were helping because I had nothing to compare them too. I\u2019d never had chemo without acupuncture. Then my practitioner moved away.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t feel much worse for the next few weeks. Then I started seeing Darin at Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center. He was highly recommended and specializes in the treatment of cancer patients. I entered his office in the midst of weeks of terrible insomnia. When I left I was hardly able to drive home I was so sleepy (I\u2019m just gonna rest myzzzzzzzsnort). At home, I crawled into bed and slept for hours. And that wasn\u2019t the only change. My nausea wasn\u2019t gone but it felt lighter, less crushing. I felt\u2026 Better. I have been a believer in acupuncture and a loyal follower ever since.<\/p>\n

Since then several studies have come out testing acupuncture and nausea. This one<\/a> was released around 2000 and found that \u201cSeven of the 8 patients responded to the addition of acupuncture to control nausea and vomiting. These patients generally were able to tolerate additional courses of chemotherapy.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

This year Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit ran a test on women with hormone positive breast cancer<\/a> that compared acupuncture to the drug Effexor, an anti-depressant that has been shown to reduce hot flashes. Acupuncture worked as well as Effexor at reducing hot flashes, but with fewer side effects. Women receiving the acupuncture treatments reported more energy and a better sex drive than women taking the drug.<\/p>\n

I still see Darin every few months to help me with ongoing problems like hot flashes and anemia. This year Darin was featured in Seattle Metropolitan\u2019s Top Docs issue in the field of acupuncture. I couldn\u2019t be more proud.\u00a0 When we see each other we still need a good 20 minutes to chatter and get all caught up before the session starts. He has to see pictures of Josie and I have to hear stories about his dog \u2013 a great dane named after the Easter bunny who has her own facebook page and says things like I can touch my eyeball with my tongue<\/em>. Maybe it\u2019s the dog stories, maybe it\u2019s the needles, or maybe it\u2019s both these things, all I know is that when I leave his office I always feel better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in chemo I tried nearly every holistic and western medical treatment. Yoga? Of course. Poison? You bet. Steroids? If you think so. Massage? Oh twist my arm. Vitamins? Definitely. Chi gong? Sure, sure. I was live experimentation at its best. When I started chemo I went to an acupuncturist and my sessions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cancer","category-hmn-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katherinemalmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}