Dr. Vinny

Yesterday afternoon the kids and I made our way to Vinny who squeezed us in fairly last minute.

Vinny is a chiropractor who practices traditional Chinese medicine. One of the things I like about him is that he is the antithesis of "new agey". He grew up locally and is very down-to-earth.

Something else I like about him is that he is very clear, compassionate and direct. He listens really well and therefore remembers.

And, he is able to accept our health insurance so visits to him cost no more than our co-pay.

When I go with the kids it's usually a bit hairy. The space is small and I feel badly that others may be bothered by the kids' noisy energy. The work I get done is superficial because I can't completely turn my head off when the kids are underfoot. But, I was desperate and I wanted the kids to get treated, too.

Neither child was able to completely relax into the treatment (First was able to more than Kinder, but stopped short at the "seeds") and during my treatment, both kids were up on the table with me at one point or another.

Kinder has been exploring his olfactory sense lately (to which I can completely relate being highly olfactory myself) and at one point he was lying on top of my lower half and stuck his nose right into my backside. That did little to disrupt my attempts at breathing with the work, to hook up to the proverbial IV of good stuff that flows within and without us, it was when he started talking about needing to wash his nose to get the stink off that I could not suppress my laughter.

Despite all this, when I swung myself off the table, First looked up at me and said, "you look different". I told him I felt happier and better and he said my face looked thinner.

As soon as I started walking I could feel that there was so much more stuff still hanging in and on me. I'm going back next week...alone :-)

What he said about children being most open when they are sleeping really struck me. I ended up going to bed late again last night. I remembered what Vinny said about practicing chigon in the room with them while they were in bed and so tried it. I was jazzed and wanted to calm myself down before getting under the covers with them.

I felt remarkably calm afterwards and can't recall the last time I got into bed and it felt so comfortable...my body felt almost weightless yet the act of getting horizontal felt great. I could really feel the contours of my pillow, the snuggliness of the flannel bedding, it was amazing.

And I thought I might fall right asleep and I didn't, but my pre-sleep reverie was pleasant and self-consciousness left me quickly.