I took Shana up on her advice and tried a different acupuncture doctor. This one was soooo much better! I talked to him for about 40 minutes, he asked to see my charts to see what my typical cycle looks like, and he looked at my tongue. Yep, my tongue. He looked at it closely and even took pictures of it. Very close up pictures. It was a little awkward, but he said that you can tell a lot from the health of the tongue. Who knew?? Apparently my tongue told him that my ovulation is "not good" and my liver and kidneys need some help. But he did use a lot of medical terminology and seemed to know his stuff. He had lots of pictures of babies and ultrasounds in his office, so that was a good sign.

After we chatted for a while, he took me into a room and had me strip down to my bra and underwear, put on a paper gown, and lay on my back. At this point I was feeling quite a bit of relief to realize he wouldn't be pinching my spine again like the other guy did. I felt the effects of that for three days!

He put needles in my ankles and feet, wrists and arms, one on the top of my head, and two in my right ear. The one on my head was a little uncomfortable. Not painful, but I was aware that it was there the whole time. None of the other ones hurt at all. I barely felt them even go in.

He left me in there for about 15 minutes. When he came back in I told him I was very aware of the one on my head and he adjusted it a little and that helped a bit. He flicked the rest of them, which was a strange feeling, and then left me alone again for another 20 minutes. This time I found myself dozing off and I kept waking myself up by either twitching or snoring. Snoring, because I'm still a little congested. Twitching because every time I moved, the paper sheet under me made lots of noise and it would wake me up. I had a nice nap, though.

When he came back in, he removed the needles (totally painless) and I got dressed and met him back in his office. He gave me a bottle of some herbs that are supposed to help my kidney and liver function more efficiently. I won't be taking them until I talk to my doctor and make sure they won't kill me. (Mom, please don't send me any links or websites or any other information you may find on this product. I can do it myself.)

Dr. Zhang has different treatments depending on where I am in my cycle. I like that. For instance, in the beginning he'll give a treatment to help relieve cramps and make sure everything gets expelled properly. Then he'll do a treatment as I'm gearing up to ovulate. Then one after ovulation to help the fertilized (hopefully) egg make its way to my uterus safely.

I'm really glad I went to this new guy. I have high hopes for him. :-)