Last Monday week an innocuous incident saw me dropped by a severe case of lower back pain.

Years of pre-acupuncture physical toil, harvesting potatoes and picking fruit has taken it's toll on my body, leaving me with a susceptible lower back.

For the last 5 years regular acupuncture treatment and heightened awareness of no can do activities has kept me relatively pain free n easy.

However whilst taking off my wetsuit on this fateful day, I casually used my foot rather than my hands to drag down the leg of said suit.

Big mistake!

I knew I was in trouble straight away but hoped that my severe lower back pain would resolve quickly.

Alas, days end saw me bent over like an old man and unable to straighten without significant pain and discomfort, severely compromising my ability to get in and out of my vehicle.

In addition I found it impossible to sit for more than a few minutes at a time, severely disrupting my ability to publish blog posts, write emails and update http://www.worldacupuncture.com product pages as promised.

Ugh, not a pretty site.

The following day was an unofficial public holiday in Australia for the running of a horse race, known as the 'Melbourne Cup'.

Phew, no clinic enabled me to gingerly travel to the residence of my long time assistant and resident tonetskyu (rice grain moxibustion) expert Andrea.

She generously applied tonetskyu  and inserted some intra-dermal needles close to the most painful points.

I experienced some relief and was able to get a better nights sleep and travel to work the next day, where my colleague Nick then applied acupuncture as pictured below in conjunction with a Kidney root treatment.

Again I enjoyed sufficient relief to complete a very busy day in clinic.

The situation was complicated by the fact that my daughters and I were to  travel some 300 km on Friday to visit  old family friends on their property in the hills behind Coff’s Harbour on the mid North Coast of New South Wales.

Of more immediate concern was my ability to travel 200 km to and from my rooms in Brisbane not to mention being able to treat the many patients booked in for treatment on the Thursday as a result of the aforementioned unofficial public holiday on Tuesday.

Fortunately my assistant on the Thursday morning Andrew, an accomplished student who had been diligently practicing his traditional acupuncture skills throughout the year gave me another treatment.

Utilizing the marks that I had asked Nick to make on the previous day; Andrew skillfully administered an identical treatment.

Suffice to say that I made it through the day and got home in one piece, albeit slightly bent.

My daughters arrived that night and we awoke on Friday morning to the news that our destination, Coff’s Harbour had experienced a massive deluge of rain overnight and flooding was rampant.

o complicate matters the intense low pressure system that was contributing to such an extraordinary rainfall was going nowhere and the rain was forecast to continue for the next 24 to 48 hours making our planned journey more than a little perilous.

Add to that my extremely suspect lower back condition and we were experiencing some degree of trepidation, a situation not remedied by a phone call from my close friends in the eye of the storm strongly suggesting that we abandon our journey.

Our friends communicated some significant concerns about our safety, especially gaining access to their property.

This assessment was based on the fact that at the time of the phone call access to and from the property had been cut off by rising floodwater's.

Nevertheless, my daughters and I rarely have exclusive time together and decided to cast caution to the wind and make the trip.

Thankfully all went well and we had a fabulous although extremely wet weekend.

The moral of the story is that fortune favors the bold and traditional acupuncture was incredibly effective, resolving my pain and discomfort sufficiently for me to travel such a distance and negotiate some hair-raising creek crossings, enjoy a wonderful party and arrive home in much better shape than when I departed.

To cap it off, I went for my first surf since injuring my back yesterday enjoying some pristine conditions at my local break at Rainbow Bay a little over a week after suffering from an extremely nasty dose of acute lower back pain, from my perspective as a patient a very good result indeed!

I hope all is well with you and yours.
Kind regards,
Alan

PS.

The following images should give you some idea of our adventurous weekend in addition to showing me on the treatment table for a change.

Alan Jansson is an internationally recognized teacher and practitioner of Traditional Japanese Acupuncture.  For well over a decade, independent of and in conjunction with Masakazu Ikeda sensei and Edward Obaidey, Alan has presented, convened and hosted more than 40 Traditional Japanese Acupuncture workshops in Australia, New Zealand and USA. Driven by a strong desire to promote the consumer friendly nature, clinical efficacy and potency of Meridian Based Traditional Japanese Acupuncture, Alan is a staunch advocate of practically based workshops and draws upon his 25 years clinical experience and 14 years post and undergraduate teaching in a concerted effort to lift the bar globally in the clinical application of this most amazing medical art.

Join him in Exploring the Art of Acupuncture in the 21st century at  http://www.Worldacupuncture.com

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