I've been seeing a Doctor of Oriental Medicine for the last few weeks - after we returned from our honeymoon, I got sick, and haven't been 100% since then. I've been on a parasite cleanse, which helped, but my gut has still not been quite right. It feels tense all the time and I haven't had a normal bowel movement in about two months. I tried everything else that I and my chiropractor could think of to normalize things, but nothing was working.

So one day I walked to a café nearby to see what it was like and saw a sign in a window for a colon cleanse, and it occurred to me that it might help clear out whatever's going on in there.

So I've been there three times now, and things seem to be improving a bit. He massages my tummy, and has told me that my chi is low and that I need to stretch and not eat cold foods, raw foods, dairy or pork, not too much fat, and not very much sugar. Since I already don't eat dairy or pork, that's easy enough. The sugar thing I'm still working on, but even at my worst I eat less than the average American. I'd still like to cut back on it. Not eating raw food is okay, since I tend to steam veggies anyway, and he said a little salad is fine every day. And no sushi, which I'd been avoiding lately anyway because of the parasite issues....

The 'cold' food thing is the most difficult, for a couple of reasons. First, it's summer. In Los Angeles. Sometimes the only thing I want is a cold ginger beer or china cola. Or a little bit of soy dream 'ice cream'. And it complicates lunch a bit since I am supposed to have something hot..... Also, he not only means cold food as in temperature, but cold food as in 'cold' food, and I have no idea what foods are considered 'cold' foods, other than pork, which isn't an issue. I've decided that I'm not going to worry about the 'cold' foods at all, since the BTD works so well.

He's also been doing acupuncture on me, which I've always been interested in. Last week he put two tiny (maybe a millimeter long, if that) needles into points in my ear - one for the large intestine, and one for well-being. The well-being one lasted about 4 hours before I was in so much pain that I pulled it off, but the large intestine one didn't bother me at all, and he said it could be in there a week without any problem. He pulled it out today, and put needles in the other ear for large intestine and stomach. Neither of them is giving me any problems at all, so I expect he'll pull them out next week. He also treats acupuncture points while I'm in the office without needles - he uses some electrical gizmo that zaps the acupuncture points. It's pretty cool.

Not much else to report - I've been jobhunting and cleaning out the closet in the spare room. We ordered a four-drawer filing cabinet that will be delivered tomorrow, and will help us get organized. I've thrown out about 6 grocery bags full of trash in the last few days. It feels good to clean stuff out!