Acupuncture week 2

I had a great sleep last night, and so did Fiona. She had her second acupuncture treatment yesterday. She only knocked one needle out. Last week she knocked out 3 or 4. She slept really well after the first treatment. In fact, we had 4 nights of really great sleeps. Fiona frequently walked through the night for a drink, to go potty, to pace. There was a lot less of that.  She did well on our walks. there was less stumbling or tripping over her own feet, and the pace was better.

The other weird thing that happened was that 2 of her many cyst erupted. Usually these are nasty, oozy and take a long time to heal, but these were straight-forward and seem to be healing already. She is already on antibiotics for a bacterial skin infection, and has 2 more weeks to go, so I am hopeful that acupuncture and antibiotics will help these along. I asked the vet if acupuncture could be helping her body heal the cysts and she said maybe but would ask her sister, who is an acupuncturist.

Our first week has left me hopeful. When we got home yesterday, she had a snack and then slept. Last night she slept through my tossing and turning.  I am curious to see how Fiona’s  health plays out this week.

On thing leads to another

In 1983, the year I turned 19, the British new wave band The Fixx released an album called Reach the Beach. 

This album had a chart topping single entitled “One Thing Leads to Another”. This very singable song has been swirling around my mind in connection with 2 books I wrote about yesterday: Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang. Saints connects, in my mind, to another book and to an event.

First, they connect to The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong by L. Tam Holland.

The Asian connection is obvious. But both books deal with Asian culture bumping up against Western culture and about family history and connections. Holland’s book is funny and poignant. When Vee Crawford-Wong’s history teacher assigns an essay on his family history, Vee knows he’s in trouble. His parents—Chinese-born dad and Texas-bred Mom—are mysteriously and stubbornly close-lipped about his ancestors. So, he makes it all up and turns in the assignment. And then everything falls apart. After a fistfight, getting cut from the basketball team, offending his best friend, and watching his grades plummet, one thing becomes abundantly clear to Vee: No one understands him! If only he knew where he came from… So Vee does what anyone in his situation would do: He forges a letter from his grandparents in China, asking his father to bring their grandson to visit. Astonishingly, Vee’s father agrees. But in the land of his ancestors, Vee learns that the answers he seeks are closer to home then he could have ever imagined. This is a great debut novel.

The other connection is driven by character. Doctor Won in Saints, is an acupuncturist. Today, my 12-1/2-year-old basset, Fiona,

had her first acupuncture treatment for arthritis. We tried her on Rimadyl for 2 weeks, but her liver numbers went up, so that wasn’t an alternative. Fiona’s vet, Dr. Karen Davies, suggested other medications, but, knowing she was a veterinary acupuncturist, I asked if we could try that instead of more meds.

Fiona did pretty well. She didn’t object to the  needles, and she stayed pretty still until Dr. Davies came to pull them out. We go again in a week, and once a week for 4 weeks. Dr. Davies says that we should see some improvement by then. If we don’t we probably won’t and can think about another treatment.

Fiona is sleeping right now. She always does after a trip to the vet. Maybe I will take a nap, too.