How I’m Using Acupuncture for Trauma Release After Breast Cancer

I have written extensively on this blog about the trauma that comes with a breast cancer diagnosis and how even two and a half years post-diagnosis, I know my body is still holding on to that trauma. I can’t quite describe it fully, but it’s a bit like a roller coaster ride where you are handing on for dear life to the handrail. While life goes on, there’s a part of me that still feels like I am braced for a crash. So I recently turned to acupuncture to seek release.

It is well understood that the body’s parasympathetic nervous system is connected to digestion. While your sympathetic nervous system controls your body’s “fight or flight” response, it also helps to control your body’s response during times of rest. According to the Cleveland Clinic, the informal description of this system rhymes with rest and digest and feed and breed. It increases your rate of digestion and diverts energy to help you digest food. It also tells your pancreas to make and release insulin, helping your body break down sugars into a form your cells can use. It relaxes the muscles that help you control when you pee (urinate) or poop (defecate). TMI (ok but this blog is about getting REAL)  but these are all issues for me right now. 

I have to remind myself that the shock of diagnosis, a major surgery and amputation of my breasts, twelve weeks of chemotherapy and three full weeks of daily radiation was anything but a walk in the park. The stress of my initial diagnosis led to a near 10 pound weight loss in four weeks, and while that weight returned (and then some) my mind-gut situation has been a mess ever since. 

I always say to folks that the nurses in the chemo suite wear hazmat suits when administering the drugs that kill the cancer in our body. I also think I am stupid and bullheaded enough not to admit to others, or even to myself that this was a LOT to bear. My daughter has said many times to me and others that I made cancer look “easy.” Well, it wasn’t and I’m still paying the price. The experience of being emotionally shocked, cut up, poisoned and irradiated has done a number on me. My metabolism is messed up. My digestive system is messed up. My sleep is not the same. I clench my jaw. I need more sleep. I’m more seasonally sad than usual. 

So I’ve been trying all kinds of things to get myself right. I wrote about trying yoga for hip opening and trauma release. I have recently begun seeing a naturopath and with her guidance, I’m trying the process of food elimination to reduce the inflammation my body is holding onto. 

I also returned to acupuncture. Years ago, I used acupuncture for the pain associated with a pulled hip flexor with a great deal of success. I loved it then, and decided to give it a try again. 

For those unfamiliar with this ancient form of Chinese medicine, Acupuncture involves inserting very thin needles through your skin at strategic points on your body. A key component of traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture is most commonly used to treat pain. Increasingly, however, it is being used for overall wellness, including stress management. I happily booked my appointment knowing I had nothing to lose and everything to gain from the experience. 

During my first visit, which included a consultation, the clinician examined by tongue and felt my pulse, the clinician I visited explained to me that acupuncture is a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as chi or qi (chee) — believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, acupuncture practitioners believe that your energy flow will re-balance. Her diagnosis, based on her findings and what I was able to share about the way my body was feeling is that I have blocked channels — specifically the spleen, digestive system, liver and intestines. 

If you have experienced acupuncture you’ll know exactly what I mean as I describe the process. For those of you who haven’t I’ll try to put it in words. First, it is almost always painless. And the location for the needle placement is always surprising and unusual. In my case, I had needles inserted in my upper foot, inner ankles, the tissue between my thumb and forefinger and the top of my head (in addition to some pressure point work). The magic begins after the needles are inserted. Immediately your nervous system is activated pleasingly. I have described it as if someone runs their fingers across the strings of a your nervous system’s guitar. You are then left to rest for 30 minutes before having the needles manipulated once again and removed. I’ll confess to sneaking in a nice midday nap.

I’ve had two acupuncture sessions to date. Will it resolve my gut and nervous systems long term?  I certainly hope so. I can tell you that immediately following my first treatment, I felt more relaxed — as if a giant knot in my chest had come undone, and after both sessions, I was exhausted and slept soundly for 12 hours. 

So maybe I am more tired and more undone that I have allowed myself to realize. Perhaps acupuncture is helping me realize that fact.