They work

Another fine treatment with my acupuncturist/MD. Got a point done that I think is called "Fluid Secretion Gate." South-Park fans will probably have all sorts of unpleasant images coming to mind, so let me reassure you that no, it isn't those secretions or those fluids. It's metaphoric, not anatomical. Now, personally, I have no idea what it means, but the name is... intriguing.

Flu shots are all the rage on the news and the webs. My doctor's take, for me—I hasten to remind you, your milage may vary, he wasn't talking about "you," or "people," he was talking about me, I'm just sharing what he said about me—his take was that it's a crapshoot at best whether the bug in the shots is the bug that's the one that's going to attack if, IF, such attack actually happens; you're getting sick for a day because of the shot but shouldn't, probably, be sick longer, but whether it'll actually keep you from getting sick, it's a crapshoot; and for people who have wack immune systems due to M.S., his words were "nobody has any idea." One thing I have seen on the Internet directed to pretty much everybody, boiled down to "Dude: wash your hands. A lot." Washing my hands copiously and repeatedly kept me completely disease-free during the last Big Flu Scare of a few years ago, and I was surrounded by five hundred adorable disease vectors (those'll be the high-school students). And, when I saw said adorable disease vectors applying pseudo-bug-killing slop on their hands, I gave them the same advice: "Forget that stuff. Go wash your hands." And they didn't get sick either. So, that's what I know and how I'm dealing with the Flu Scare.

The formula my herbalist is currently having me take, may be actually helping something repair itself. It may be too early to tell for sure, too soon to order the flowers and write invitations to the party celebrating a victory over The Disease; but as of this morning, something that had been failing had started working.  We'll see if this continues, but... hope springs eternal. I'm sorry it isn't something grand and glorious like POOF! My legs work! I can walk without wall-walking or walker-walking! or POOF! I can play the organ again! Or anything like that, more's the pity. It was one of those neurological failures that only I, and occasionally my doctor if I give him gory details, will ever know about... but things working are things working.

It may very well be, in a small quiet way, testament to the power of persistence and ingenuity with Chinese medicinal herbs and traditional five-element acupuncture; both of which are, interestingly enough, administered by people who are familiar with, and known as scholars within, the traditional-Western medical world. Chinese medicinal no-adverse-side-effects herbs in custom-formulated prescriptions; acupuncture treatments specifically tuned to and for YOU... You can't mass-market them, you can't copyright them, they'll never be able compete on the national, lobbyist-infested level.

But, they work. Oh boy, do they work.