pins and needles.

warning / spoiler alert: this post contains a photo of needles sticking out of me.


last week i had my first appointment with someone who specializes in traditional chinese medicine (tcm). he came highly recommended by a couple of my awesome co-workers. to super duper dumb it down, tcm works by s... no, you know what? google it. if you want to know how tcm works, google that shit. there's noway i can give it the explanation it deserves. i will say that this tcm practitioner checked my pulse in a million (or 9) places on each wrist to get an idea of how my organs are functioning. i will also say that somehow (through the magic of old school science and medicine) he was able to specifically ask if i'd had mono as a teenager. you'd be more impressed by this if you knew that i had mono when i was 18 and my alopecia areata started 6 months after that. impressive, right? he said my spleen isn't doing its job as well as it should be (slacker spleen) and he believes that is a result of the mono. he doesn't think the mono caused my alopecia areata, but he does think that the mono (and slacker spleen) have made it tougher for my body to deal with the alopecia.

i'm drinking a special tea 3 times a day (and fortunately it doesn't taste like garbage) and taking some herbs to support it. i'd tell you what the herbs are, but i can't because my keyboard doesn't have chinese characters. he also mentioned that he couldn't guarantee results and that we'd know more in 3 - 6 months. i have faith.

then he did acupuncture, which i decided to document in photographs instead of relaxing like i was supposed to.

oh! i've also added silica to my daily regime. i take 1tbsp of the liquid twice a day. it tastes like nothing, but the texture is really, really weird. it's somehow wet and dry at the same time.