Stressing out
Between Midwest Express disappointing me in such an extreme way and some other stuff going on in my life, I’ve been stressed.
I know we are truly blessed.
All I have to do is look at this little face…
…and I know our life is a good one.
But I worry, even though I know I can’t control what happens or doesn’t happen. Economy, fuel prices, health issues, etc… Can you feel the pressure? My shoulders are already beginning to tense just thinking about it all.
And speaking of health issues, for those of you who have asked – yes, Little Dude and I have recovered from Hand, Foot and Mouth and Supercat is doing okay, too, with only one more day of his antibiotic left. The Hubby never got sick, amazingly!
The only thing we are still dealing with isn’t that big of a deal – just annoying and oh-so-not-pretty. Little Dude and I both have a lot of dry and peeling skin on our hands and feet, from where we had the blisters. It looks the worst on Little Dude’s feet and my hands. Ick – so not attractive.
But back to me feeling stressed… When I get stressed (or sleep poorly and/or have been on the phone too much), I get a huge pain in my neck (yes, I truly have a pain in my neck – I’m not talking about the folks who irritate me).
Yesterday, I had a chance to try a small demonstration of acupuncture and I think it might be something I’ll try again in the future. I don’t like needles, but with the exception of a very minor twinge here and there, it didn’t feel like I had needles being poked into my neck.
The downside – our insurance doesn’t recognize acupuncture as a “real” therapy. This is kind-of sad, since when I talked to the acupuncturist about his prices, seeing him would be a lot easier on my insurance than putting me on a prescription anti-inflammatory to reduce the pain in my neck, shoulder and upper back.
I still may have to look into it more, though…
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Forgot to mention that the photo of Little Dude was taken while he learned about the wonders of banana popsicles. They are a hit, but he almost prefers just chewing on the stick!
Popsicles are always a big hit here too…. And my kids STILL chew on the sticks!
Hope everything is OK, and that whatever is causing the stress STOPS ALREADY!
I LOVE banana popsicles. They are my #1 favorites.
{{hugs}} I hope the stress lets up soon.
Acupuncture is great, I hope that you can do it. I know about the pain in the neck, that’s where I stresss too!
Certified stick chewer here… Except mine are fudgesicles.
here are a couple of stress busters i might suggest:
1. grab two banana popsicles, kick off your shoes and take half and hour to eat them with l’il dude in the backyard. enjoy the grass under your feet and just play in the sunshine.
2. take a 12 or 24 hour vacation. turn off the computer, turn off the ringer on the phones and tell all you are on vacation. do not do any housework or paperwork. make like when you were a child on summer vacation. play. let go of everything else, it will be there on monday.
there are some things you can change and some you can’t. only worry about those you can control. stress is a horrible thing. a soak in epsom salts can help with the aches and pains.
my yoga teacher said to us once that stress is regret for the past and worry for the future. do not waste time worrying about the future. what you worry may not come to pass and then you have wasted all the time you worried that you could have been enjoying something else.
the message i took was that if i live in the moment and enjoy and live now, i will have less stress in my life.
be well,
storm
My stress shows up as a sharp pain between my shoulder blades. That’s when I know it’s time to slow right down. Your post made me curious about my benefits, so I looked it up, and acupunturists are covered if they are also a physician.
Accupunture is WONDERFUL!!! I am lucky that my work benefits cover it and I should really look into it more for my sinus migraines and what not…
Stress does terrible things to the body. Its true what you said.. if more insurance companies would recognize the benefits of alternative medicines – it would certianly cost them much less than prescription meds…
I hope your get away gives you the much needed break you need. Try not to worry too much about what you can’t control… Easier said than done, eh?
Banana popsicles. mmmmmmm. Root beer popsicles are good too.
Acupuncture is fanfreakingtastic. It kills me that my insurance won’t pay for it, but I feel so much better than I just pony up the cash and deal with it. And will for the foreseeable future. I should probably look for secondary insurance to cover it, eh?
OK, I will stick my head up and risk getting flamed as I seem to be in the minority here.
Acupuncture is not a “real” therapy. Look at the evidence … don’t just read the Media overview of the evidence because unfortunately the standard of scientific knowledge in our media at the moment is shockingly bad. I have often read an article and went on to read the details of a study only to find that the article has entirely misinterpreted the study.
There are many studies into acupuncture … some of which even seem to point to benefits … but the trend is that the better designed the study the less benefit is found.
A recent study that I read was as follows … test the benefits of people that received “Proper” acupuncture vs. the reported benefits of a control group receiving a treatment of needles being placed in “incorrect” locations on the subject’s body. The results came back that there was no noticeable difference.
The reason acupuncture may display a “benefit” for conditions related to stress etc is exactly as one might imagine … you are made to relax! But to say that there is no evidence to show that there is any benefit other than relaxation and placebo. Think about it, when was the last time you set aside an half hour (or however long) with no kids, with nothing else to think about, and just had serious “me” time … I bet your neck didn’t hurt then either.
Again I know my comment may be unpopular, but I didn’t want you spending your hard earned money before thinking about what exactly you are getting. My advice (If you are interested) would be to take the time that you would have spent getting the acupuncture and relax in whatever way you personally find effective like a hot bath, a sauna or a massage … all of which are way cheaper than acupuncture.