Besides the warm welcome and cup of herbal tea, be prepared to fill out the standard HIPPA form as well as our informed consent, along with your medical history and reason for your visit. This usually takes between 15 to 20 minutes.
Once you have filled the forms out, we will go into a quiet private room and discuss what it is you would like to be seen for. We ask our standard TCM questions and discuss a course of action.
Usually, at this point, people who have never had acupuncture before are a little nervous about getting needled. We use sterile, single use needles that are extremely thin, and make your treatment as comfortable as possible. Pleasantly, a side effect of acupuncture is deep relaxation, and often times patients will fall asleep while they are having a treatment.
Typically, you will feel the effects of the treatment throughout the remainder of the day and into the evening. You very well may even sleep more deeply that same night.
If you are being treated for musculoskeletal symptoms, you will feel like you have worked out and have “post workout soreness”, which means that the muscles have been released at a very deep level, very similar to a deep tissue massage, yet on a deeper level. Be sure to drink plenty of water to help your muscles clear any metabolic waste that has built up.
Q: I am afraid of being very sore after a treatment, and bruised, is this common?
A: Bruising unfortunately sometimes can occur, although it is never our intention of causing bruises. Soreness is more common if you are coming in for orthopedic treatments, although this will only last for a short while.
Q: I once heard that acupuncture can cause the flu? Is this true?
A: No. Influenza is a communicable disease that has an incubation period ranging from 2-4 days and spreads through direct contact of infected carriers, or through droplets of infected people or through the air. Acupuncture does NOT cause the flu.
Good questions! Please keep them coming, and more to come soon so stayed tuned!
Live and be well.
Dr. Jamie Hampton