I got lots of good advice from everyone. Thank you!
So here's the deal- it was brought up that I had messed with my birth control a couple of months before the wedding. I don't know what I was thinking would or wouldn't come from that but I didn't want to have my period for my wedding and honeymoon so I took a chance. Bleh. I wish I hadn't. So we're thinking I'm still reeling from the hormone imbalance that I caused on top of the big life changes I'm in the middle of.
Everyone has agreed that the birth control should go so I stopped taking it. There are other ways to prevent pregnancy and there will be no babies in the near future, thank you.
Everyone has also agreed that I need to REST. My aunts have especially stressed this point. So I have taken my workouts down from 5 to 3 days a week (not including the occasional yoga class on Saturdays) and am doing my best to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night, if not more. This past weekend, I got loads of sleep.
I made an appointment with my doctor to talk about anti-depressants but I think I might cancel it. It's for August 13th and I think that might be too soon to tell whether what I'm doing now is enough. I also made an appointment to get acupuncture and I went to that last night.
I've never had acupuncture done before. What an interesting experience. I went to Silverlake Acupuncture near my apartment. First off, the practitioner worked with me to schedule a later appointment which was very nice. Doctor's don't do that. I went in and filled out some frightening forms that told me about all of the horrible side effects that rarely but sometimes do occur- bruising, bleeding, fainting, accidental organ puncture(?!). I signed away my rights (if Oprah thinks it's okay, so do I) and went into the room a little more nervous.
Michael L. Fox, whose middle name is "Lee" just like mine, asked me loads of questions. I really enjoyed this part because I'm so used to doctor's running through a chart, shooting out questions and barely giving me time to respond before asking the next and then rattling off a complicated diagnosis which means nothing to me. He asked me why I was taking cinnamon. I felt a little sheepish because the main reason is because I think it's a fun supplement and didn't think cinnamon could hurt anything. I told him it was for blood sugar regulation and that I had heard it was good for weight loss, and that my mom said it helps the immune system (when taken with honey). I got the impression that he thought I was being irresponsible with the cinnamon. He asked if I ever got hot flashes. No, not really. Apparently, cinnamon ups your body temperature and gets things energized. Later, while laying on the table with needles poked in various places, I remembered saying to Mike, "Isn't it weird that I used to be so cold all of the time and now I'm kicking the sheets off and sweating in the middle of the night?"
Next, Michael L. Fox looked at my tongue and said, "Very good." He showed me the needles and told me that they would feel like a mosquito bite or perhaps cause a bit of aching when they went in. He was right. I didn't even feel some of them, like the one in my third eye, some felt like a mosquito bite and there were a couple that ached in my left leg. Then he left me in the room for 15 minutes. At some point, the calming music stopped and I was left with the ticking of the clock. I began thinking of clocks and that led my to my grandparents' house. I began to imagine each room of Grammy and Papa's house and had such vivid memories that I couldn't stop until the end of the 15 minutes. It was a very nice trip. I miss that house a lot.
He pulled the needles out, prescribed some herbs, I paid the bill and off I went. I didn't realize till I got home that my terrible cramps were gone. I went in with awful cramps and lower back pain. I hadn't taken any ibuprofen because I was afraid that would mess with the acupuncture process somehow. But the pain was gone after the appointment. Neat.
I think I'll go one or two more times and take the herbs. We'll see what happens.
Oh, and by the way- all I had to do was roll up my jeans. And he put two needles on the top of each foot, two on the front of my legs, one on each arm, one in each hand and one on my third eye.
