Grandmothering and the bittersweetness of life

Yesterday my oldest grandchild graduated from preschool.  I was crying a little as soon as they started to play the Grand March (so cute for those who are so little).  That was good though so that my camera eyes were ready when Jonathan began his march.  I cry a lot around the grandchildren issues but I think that my crying personifies the definition of bittersweet = arousing pleasure tinged with sadness or pain.  So tears are cried out of happiness and pride about the little one's advances but there is also that sense that time is moving on, the grands are moving on, things are going to change.  Ahhh, there's the rub: change.  They change who and what they know, make new friends and join activities that take their time.  They move to new schools so there's the possibility of seeing them less frequently.  Their "free time" for spending times w/ the g-parents seems like a smaller window of opportunity.  So I cry.  We finish a vacation where we've taken one of them (soon to be more), and I cry.  They are here playing in the yard pretending to mow the lawn, rake, and shovel, and I'm maudlin when they leave.  That's right: self-pity takes over. Why does change, growth sometimes engender that self-pitying feeling?  I can grow too; my life will change with theirs.  But, my life is changing toward the end, and while so is theirs, they have so much more left!  Every graduation that they each make is a "graduation" for me toward being older and my life changing.
Thank God I am healthy and active and plan to continue to be so.  For example, our oldest grandson is interested in rock climbing so I bought myself new climbing shoes yesterday.  Haven't climbed in at least 15 years but I feel a revitalization, a renewal.  That is how I prefer to look at the passing of time with my grands - they are allowing me to learn new things, practice new skills (like how to use all the new fangled technology out there), and relive experiences that I treasure and now show them (skiing, camping, mt biking, general exploration of the world!)  So I get a redo in many ways.
I guess that growth is tough and certainly change creates angst in many unless you are firmly entrenched in that idea that change is good; nothing good happens in a vacuum.  I remind myself that 2012 especially is about change: the year of the Yang Water Dragon.  Part of the power of this year is having the ability to flow with change - one can miss opportunities if you are unwilling to change.  Will, determination, ability to flow will all lead to abundance.  All these grandkids = abundance!!!

Cosmetic Acupuncture: Love your skin! Host a party and receive a $200 discount.

I started the day with Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture and love how my skin feels.  It's like I can feel the qi nurturing my skin and the collagen and elastin regrowing - most of the day actually (I know because I do these treatments pretty regularly).  The Chinese Medicine theory around Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture is that your practitioner (me) takes your pulses to do a complete examination of how your qi (energy) is flowing, gives you a general health treatment, and then puts in the cosmetic needles.  So in every Mei Zen treatment, your entire energy gets balanced along w/ your cosmetic treatment.  This is a wonderful option to surgery (well, almost anything is a good option to not have surgery), injections, laser treatments, etc.
If you host a Cosmetic Acupuncture party, you will receive a $200 discount on your own Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture protocol.  Email DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com or call 303-947-6224 for details or to set up your FREE Cosmetic Acupuncture consultation.
See before and after photos at www.CosmeticAcupunctureFacelifts.com or www.CosmeticAcupunctureSeminars.com.
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Acupuncture to treat Raynaud's condition

http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/551-acupunctureceusraynaudspain

To learn more about Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, call 303-947-6224 or email me at DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com.
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Acupuncture is physical medicine, not a mystery.

Acupuncture affects the body in real, tangible ways!  It is not a mystery and new studies are demonstrating that.
http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/474-mristudyrevealsacupuncturemechanisms
To see how acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine work for weight loss (fixing digestion and giving you more energy), hormone balancing (peri-menopause, hot flashes, PMS etc.), cosmetic improvements and general aging gracefully and health-fully, IBS, chronic fatigue, syndrome, sports injuries, etc., call 303-947-6224 or email DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com.
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Bee products and health

Bees create health products - royal jelly has long been revered in Traditional Chinese Medicine for its healing and improving longevity properties and now they're looking at beehive extract in the treatment of prostate cancer.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120504110402.htm#.T7F8o_YYQE4.facebook
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Call 303-947-6224 or email DrMLucas@Acupuncturewoman.com for an appointment.
Pulse diagnosis is my specialty - getting to the root cause of your symptoms!

Acupuncture helps chronic obstructive pulmonary disease plus weight.

The authors state: "We demonstrated clinically relevant improvements in DOE [dyspnea on exertion] (Borg scale), nutrition status (including BMI), airflow obstruction, exercise capacity and health-related quality of life after three months of acupuncture treatment."  
Not only did the patients' lung health improve but their weight improved!!!  


http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-acupuncture-linked-patients-chronic-obstructive.html


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For an appointment call 303-947-6224 or email DrMLucas@Acupuncturewoman.com.  My specialty is diagnostics and treating conditions that haven't responded to other treatment (fertility challenges, weight loss, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, chemotherapy related symptoms, allergies, sports injuries - cold laser, PMS and other women's issues, cosmetic improvements using Mei Zen).

Looking for one day week acupuncture space Broomfield/Westminster

I'm thinking of adding a satellite office to my practice up North.  Have been hearing of people renting 2 rooms one day a week (furnished) for about $100/month and so am looking for something like that.  DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com or 303-947-6224.

Women's bone health, lack of effectiveness of phosphonates (ie., Fosamax), and how Chinese Medicine works!

The FDA has published an analysis  of the popular bone-building drugs suggesting caution about long term use because the drugs lead to weaker bones in some cases.  This is not the first time I've heard this.  I've had patients over the years who wonder why, after taking their calcium and prescription drug for 5 years their bones are still weak.  So I wasn't surprised by the FDA's concern.  Plus, many women don't know how to take calcium so that it gets used most efficiently by the body ..... or used at all!

  

Look to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for bone health.  In fact, I recently gave one of my patients who suffers from back pain some of my personal "back pain, inflammation, bone building" formula and she told me that she didn't need her estrogen patch for her hot flashes any more.  True!!  The herbs in the formula work on the cause of back pain - our weakened central, bone building qi.  That's how TCM works - we treat the cause not the symptom.

And in fact, I was taking the same bone building herbs prior to my last visit to a back surgeon who didn't say "bone on bone" for my lumbars after I'd been told that by everyone who had looked at xrays or MRIs.  So I'm happy - structural yoga therapy (w/ R Ziegler who rocks!) but I also DO the work, MT and rolfing with A Rach (great!), and regular acupuncture have worked.  Yes, REGULAR acupuncture, not just when I'm in pain or crooked and stiff.

Call 303-947-6224 or email me at DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com if you need help moving through peri-menopause, help with fertility challenges, have any medical issues with digestion, sleep, depression, anxiety etc. or would like to talk about Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture.

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Work for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains?  Your Cigna policy may well give you excellent coverage that includes acupuncture.  I can check it out for you.

Worried about your weight - women especially your middle abdominal weight - call me!

Obesity continues to rise in our country and, especially for women of peri and post menopausal age, it's scary.  Too much weight increases our chances of a number of health conditions including having that first heart attack.  In my practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I specialize in improving digestion (your first step toward losing weight believe it or not), in using acupuncture and herbs for weight loss which may include herbs that make the digestive system work better but also those (in liniment form) that help detox fat cells.  As I am a woman in that "middle age spread" age group, I know the importance of removing the especially "bad" visceral fat that accumulates in some people's middles - again, the more dangerous fat for leading to conditions like heart disease and stroke.
INSURANCE: Your insurance may cover treatment; let's find out by having you fill out an insurance verification form.  If your treatment here is not covered by insurance, well, then it's time to figure out how important your future health is, how important it is to you to feel young and vibrant.  We can't put a price on good health. Call me at 303-947-6224 or email me at DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com.  I can email you an insurance verification form to see what your health insurance will cover (or not).  Our office works with all insurance carriers and know that there are United, Cigna, BCBS, and other companies who have SOME plans (not all) that do cover acupuncture and some are quite good especially if you work for certain companies.
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Hope you have a health-filled day!

Need to detox from too many prescriptions, too much fat, etc.. Acupuncture works!

And auricular acupuncture is not only for detoxing in the sense of drug withdrawal. Auricular acupuncture, in conjunction w/ Chinese Medicine diagnosis and treatment, helps treat emotional issues, eating/weight/emotional eating issues, anxiety issues.  http://www.naturalnews.com/035771_auricular_acupuncture_addiction_detox.html
DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com, 303-947-6224.

Healthy Hope: Never give up video + personal success story

This is a sweet video about someone who was told that he would never walk again but who DID the work and now walks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX9FSZJu448

In less of a way but still very dramatic for me, I've been told never to run again (and I still play soccer), that my back crookedness was basically incurable because of bone on bone lumbar spine - think about disc replacement or low back fusion.  I couldn't turn right in the mornings because my back was so stiff and muscles so tight - and, naturally, I was in pain.  I was starting to feel fairly depressed .. asking myself "is this it?".  It's going to be too hard to hold my grandchildren, I'll never be able to pick them up, no more extreme mt biking, soccer, hiking w/ a backpack, etc. etc.?!  I didn't like the prospect of back surgery - though have to admit, I was willing to do it if I could get function back and have less pain - I wanted to live my life!  Didn't like the prospect of taking Vicodin - how would my body look in 20 years of being wracked by pain killers?  (not to mention that they don't address the problem and since I practice Traditional Chinese Medicine I like to go to the cause.  So, I got faithful about receiving acupuncture treatments and taking anti-inflammatory and bone building Chinese herbal prescriptions, I see a fantastic structural integration MT (and have been rolfed), and I started to see a structural yoga therapist and DO the work.  Oh my gosh, you cannot believe the difference in my life!  No pain meds, play soccer, back to mt biking without (much) fear, play w/ the grands all I want.  My morning pain and stiffness (that "they" said is arthritis and just get used to it) is somedays non-existent.  Now, is this utopia?  No. I'm aging, having to  accept certain things about the aging but what a difference I have in my life now and I will never give up; aging back or not!

DrMLucas@AcupunctureWoman.com, 303-947-6224.  Acupuncture works!

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