Meeting Dr. Xiao

July 23, 2013

I drove for the first time in a week today. My leg felt very week and I had to prop it up with my left foot while my right was on the gas pedal. Safe, huh? At any rate, I made it to my Ortho-bionomy appointment, which went very well. I can now feel the fluid moving from my ankle to my hip, a vast improvement from Friday. I believe this modality is helping tremendously with circulation and blood flow. I also had an appointment with a TCM practitioner, Dr. Xiao. He is an expert at sports injuries and a martial artist himself. He was surprised, like so many others, that I have very little swelling and no bruising. After looking at my MRI film, I asked him what he thought. Dr. Xiao told me that a picture can be a lot different from a physical assessment. He manipulated my leg in all different directions. There were only a couple spots where I actually felt pain but I was guarding my leg so fiercely in fear that it might hurt, I made it more difficult.  

Dr. Xiao had his assistant, George, give me about 20-minutes of Tui Na. Talk about Chinese torture. We definitely found other parts of my body compensating for the injury: hips, shoulders, glutes, etc. The “massage” was painful. Dr. Xiao then returned and did some addition Tui Na and what they call Zheng Gu. At that point, as I was squirming on the table, I asked him if any of his patients ever cuss at him. He giggled. 

My treatment was completed with acupuncture and I was given a Chinese herb in little BB gun-shaped pellets to help blood flow to the area and start to heal the damaged tissue. I have always heard that in Chinese medicine the belief is to use heat instead of ice. I asked Dr. Xiao if that was true and he confirmed and explained that ice restricts blood flow. When an area is damaged, you want the blood and fluids to flow to assist in healing the area. Even alternating heat and ice, as sports therapy indicates, is against the TCM method.

My leg feels AMAZING tonight. I’m not going out to run a marathon or anything but the pain from the popliteal cyst is completely gone and my leg has much more movement. It’s still sore, achy and weak but what a difference!

I don’t want to jinx anything but I truly feel that Dr. Xiao has put me on the path to healing. I see him again on Friday. I’m keeping the appointment I made with the surgeon last Tuesday, the day I got the MRI results. It’s tomorrow.