You can only file this one under the heading "The things we do for those we love"…
So after breakfast this morning, I headed up to the recreation lounge to use the ship's "Internet Bar" and post to my blog for the day. While I did that Vicky headed into an Acupuncture demo and I was to join her later. I got into the theater and saw this professional looking guy in a white lab coat with an elderly gentleman (who turned out to be Xiaoling's father) on stage demonstrating the various techniques.
These seemed to be the traditional needles that we're all familiar with from the movies, as well as some sort of flamed suction globes, and of course acupressure massage. He also mentioned something along the lines of they now use electric currents to stimulate the needle points rather than the old style of twisting them every so often. As we were walking out, Vicky stopped to talk to the man – of course in Chinese – and then once we left the room she dropped the bomb…
"Your appointment is at 11:00."
"Um, WHAT???"
I know, I know… I had told her that she had to do acupuncture first before I would even consider it, but shortly after 11:00 I find myself face down on a massage table. First, 6 needles (hopefully sterilized) were placed in my back, then I think it was 10 suction globes, a heat lamp and finally the electric current thingy. This all happened in a minute or two and then I started feeling this pinching sensation between my shoulder blades. We adjusted the current strength to where it was no longer painful, but where "you can still feel it" and then I tried to relax while Vicky and the doctor talked (of course in Chinese).
A few minutes later, I suddenly hear a bunch of voices excitedly talking (IN THE ROOM!!!) in Chinese and realized that I'm now an observation subject. It turns out that Xiao Ling's parents were considering the treatments and stopped by to see.
Afterwards, I had a great massage, and can thankfully say I survived. Hopefully the electric current even helped regulate my heartbeat a bit. I left with an herbal patch applied between my shoulder blades (probably to hide the scarring), which I must wear until tomorrow morning.
While lying on the table, I really didn't feel anything much at all – except for the electric current. Only when I saw the photos did I truly find out what happened. I made sure Vicky kept up her end of the bargain after lunch – despite her screams of "No needles! NO NEEDLES!" right before he started on her.
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