Get Well With Brielle

So after that doctor appointment where I was told I needed to "figure out how to get myself better" I decided I had nothing to lose and searched my health benefits for acupuncture coverage. I had a successful experience with it following a car accident when I was 16 years-old that cured me of migraines the crash had left me with. There were no insurance benefits, per say, but a few acupuncturists had a reduced-rate they offered us policy-holders. I called 1 that was in close proximity to my house and set up an appointment. I shuffled in to said appointment a few days later in my usual pathetic fashion of that time; sweats, slippers, hair in a bun with no makeup on, late as usual, glad I had easily found a parking space right across the street. I was warmly greeted by a Caucasian female close to my age with a kind face and amazing aura of positive energy about her. Her office was serene and relaxing, full of tastefully displayed Asian decor and soft, flowing music. She quizzed me on the state of my health and then had me lie down as she probed her thin, wand-like fingers over my body, immediately zeroing in on all my "hot spots" of pain and tension. She then went to work and poked needles ALL OVER MY BODY...in my ears, feet, all my "tender" points, shoulders, back, legs, arms, neck, head, you name it, I was a human pin-cushion! Then she left me for a good 30 minutes to marinate in that state. When she came back in she flipped me over and did the same thing on the front of my body. Each needle poke was profound! As they probed and slipped into every painful, tension filled, toxic oozing bundle in my body I felt things that had been bound so tightly for so long start to release.

At one point during my trance-like-doze I heard a car alarm wailing repetitively from outside and thought to myself, "That kinda sounds like my car", but ignored the hunch because the 20 needles in my body certainly took precedent at the moment! What was I gonna do, pop up and race outside half dressed, needles protruding from my body like some voodoo-doll gone wrong? When she came in she de-needled me and gave me an intense massage, pulling tension and stress out of my now-loosened up bundles of nerves. I felt amazing! We set up a follow-up and I left feeling better than I had in years. But as I walked up and down the street I could not find my car. Clicking my key-fob and hearing nothing, it slowly dawned on me that maybe it was indeed my car that was the wailing alarm I had heard earlier. I called the police station and was informed I had parked right in front of the driveway to an apartment complex and had been towed. I HAD DONE WHAT? Talk about fibro-fog! I could have sworn that was a parking space, not a driveway. No wonder I found parking so easily! I had to WALK to the tow place and pay them something like $300 to get my car back. Oh my husband was NOT happy with me!

I kept seeing the acupuncturist, each appointment walking in feeling like I had been smacked around in a boxing ring and leaving feeling partially human again. This woman was amazing, and as we got to know each other she dared to venture places she had never gone with any other Fibromyalgia patient. One afternoon she went deep. She tapped into a "cord" that started in my upper right neck, through my shoulder blade, snaked diagonally across my mid-back and down into bad sciatica pain on my lower left side. As she popped in the needles like a trail of bread crumbs through this tension cord I could barely take in a shallow breath, the pain and constriction went SO DEEP. But after a half-hour of shallow breathing turned into full, deep breaths as the cord slowly began to relax I felt amazing! That was a big turning point in my recovery. But by far the trippiest experience I had was one afternoon when I struggled in, my female cycle leveling me to ground zero once again. I was complaining about my adrenals...they felt so slow, sluggish, blocked. So she probes her fingers around the inner part of my knee and pops the needle into my "adrenal zone". A flaming ball of FIRE shoots up my leg to my hip, back down and out my toes, and I involuntarily KICK HER! She looked at me with wide eyes and told me she felt the electricity shoot out at her through the needle, something that had never happened to her before. "Told you my adrenals were blocked", I said. That experience opened up a whole new flow in my body big time.

She is one of 4 reasons I was reluctant to leave the Bay area (the others being 2 restaurants I just can't seem to replace and best friends that have since moved anyway). She helped me so incredibly much. I had walked into her office that first day a completely different person than I was when we were packing up to move to Arizona a year later. I believe we were the right people to have the right experience together at the right time. I have been to a few other acupuncturists since then and have been sorely disappointed, didn't really even bother going back, actually. Once you have had the best its hard to settle for less. God guided me to this amazing woman at the distinct time in my life when I NEEDED her touch, her healing hands. I will forever be grateful to you, Brielle Kelly! You helped me recover in ways I never even knew were possible. Now either you need to clone yourself or get your butt out to Arizona because I miss you and could still really use you! 

Thanks for joining,
Leah