I’m used to smoking my herb, not soaking it. But here I am, with my injured foot in a hot-pot of swampy Chinese herbs. After over 20 years of skate-related ankle sprains (usually nursed with beer and advil rather than a doctor) and 8 years of speeding up and slowing down on a track bike, my right ankle has almost had enough. Steve R sent me to his physical therapist and I did a couple sessions with him. It gets expensive when you are paying out of pocket (Obama, fuck these Wall St. slimeballs, where’s our healthcare?). I didn’t feel it was doing much for me. Mike recommended Steve Pang for acupuncture so I decided to give it a shot - shit, who am I to question a Chinese remedy that dates back to the Stone Age?
Steve Pang (no relation to Jeff) the acupuncture-ist gave me Chinese herb prescription that relaxes the muscles and tendons, actvates the flow of blood, invigorates the flow of Qi in the channels and collaterals, and alleviates pain. He also advised that because of the pungent odor of this ancient stew (it wasn’t as bad as I though it would be), cats will hiss at it and dogs will bug-out over the scent, and not in a good way. You can also never eat out of this pot that you use for this soak, to ingest this combination of herbs is extremely toxic and for external use only. Evidently, when you sprain your ankle enough times, it doesn’t always settle back into its correct position after being wrenched wide-open so many times. The soak is meant to loosen the tendons so that you are able to re-align your ankle, then the tendons with strengthen back up and hold it in the correct position.
So does it work? Yes. I did three soaks in two days and it really loosened my shit up, and felt like the blood was flowing well again. Hopefully with combination of the soak, staying off the track bike and board, and a couple more acupuncture sessions I’ll be on my way back to normal.
Posted by Geezer on May 13, 2009 at 11:42 AM
