Stim Therapy

Beginning this past October my left knee started to cause me some discomfort... after sitting "indian style" or if i were to tuck my left foot under me while i said (basically if my knee was bent to an angle less than 90 degrees with a little pressure on it... it would be extremely uncomfortable to straighten it.
I ignored it at first, figuring it was just temporary and that it would get better on its own.
It didn't.
Mid-November the discomfort turned to pain... not horrible pain, but definitely pain i didn't want to have.
From there my knee also started to get a little swollen... and when i say a little... i mean a little. it was hardly noticeable... but i noticed. I became VERY in-tuned to my knee and how it felt and what it looked like and such.
Beginning of December this pain also happened when i would straighten my leg after being curled up in a ball while sleeping... ie no pressure on my knee, just bent. With this knowledge i made a chiropractor appointment, and a doctors appointment.

My chiropractor appointment was on Monday January 4th. At this appointment i was told that i have the following:
-a low right shoulder
-a low left hip
-the start of a bunion on my left foot
-bad knots in my shoulders ("student knots")
-shin splints
-and ALLLL sorts of tightness in my lower legs
who knew!? My chiropractor then suggested i do "stim therapy" and that it was "really simple and only takes a few minutes, we just put a few needles in your knee and hook them up to a 9-volt battery to send a pulse into your muscles to contract them several times in a matter of minutes" etc. i'm not sure exactly what she said considering i started to panic what's she mentioned needles.
I get VERY panicky when it comes to needles... i hyper-ventilate sometimes, almost always cry (yes, at 21 i STILL cry when getting a shot) while crying or prior to crying tend to get the nervous giggles and just get very very freaked out.
I asked her if she meant we were going to do this today, she told me yes. My palms started getting clammy, i started my nervous giggles, and did my best to take deep breaths.

She then took me to another room and had me lay on a comfy cot with 2 pillows under my head and 1 under my feet. My boyfriend, Mike, was also with me at this appointment and was seated in a chair facing the cot.
As she was prepping the "materials" she was continuing to give me more details about what she was going to do as the tears came on. She said that they were acupuncture needles and that they were hair thin and didn't hurt a bit (once she stabbed me i disagreed). She then placed 3 needles in each leg around my knee as i blocked my eyes with my hand (i also get very nauseous if i see needles going into my skin, or anyone else's skin for that matter)

These needles DEFINITELY caused less pain than getting a shot would, but if i had to choose to ever get acupuncture, i don't think i would. Part of the reason it was more painful for me, especially on my left leg, is because that leg is stiff. While she was putting the needles in, Mike decided to make matters worse by asking the chiropractor why she was "putting such LARGE needles in my leg?!" which although i knew it wasn't true, still made me very panicky and made me continue to cry.
This chiropractor though was very much my friend and told him that she was going to stab him with one to see how he liked it. So after she had my 6 needles in my leg and had them hooked up to wires which attached to the "battery" she walked over to him and asked where he wanted his.
Mike was quite surprised and asked if she was serious. She was. She ended up sticking it in his right shoulder/neck area and that shut him up a little bit :)

After it was over she told me i would need about 3 more sessions of this... for the 2nd session she used sticky pads since i had such a hard time with the needles last time... but today for my 3rd session she used needles again, because as much as i hated to admit it, they had a MUCH better result with the pain reduction. This time she only did 4 needles and all in my left knee. and we got pictures! (oh! and i didn't cry today! :) )

Me laying on my cot after the needles had been inserted today with my nifty silver blanket :)

the 4 needled in my left knee! eek!

my support :)

sorry that was so long folks! but that's it! you're done! wooo! thanks for reading! :D