Well here we are still waiting for snow. We have the cold, but little snow. Supposed to be some on the way, hope so. We need it. I did go ice fishing with a friend yesterday. No fish, but saw two moose, and sat with my friend fixing all the worlds problems in 8 degree (F) temps with a 20MPH wind. Cool, but not too cold. I realized I did not have the right fishing gear, so we came in. It took me two hours of sitting in the cold wind to figure this out, but I finally did. No one ever accused me of being a fast learner.

The good news of all of this is that about three days ago I tried acupuncture for the first time. I filled out the long questionnaire, and discussed what I hoped the treatment could do for me. The therapist and I discussed what, in her experience she might be able to help me with. As I left after a 1 1/2 hour session, I didn't feel anything different until I got home and had a nap. When I awoke, I noticed my left hand and left foot (stroke side) were not cold feeling for the first time since I stroked two years ago. That was three days ago, and both hand and foot have been warm ever since, even thru the ice fishing in -20F wind chills. The hand seems to feel like there is more blood in it, a feeling that I can't really describe, but I like it.

Immediately after I stroked I took my laser thermometer (every gadget guy has one) and checked the actual temps of the skin on both hands. It confirmed the stroke sided hand was about 2-3 deg cooler than the other side. I did a similar check yesterday and today, and both are the same temp. I may have a bit more dexterity in the stroke hand as well, but minor improvement, it was pretty good as it was, thanks to the Saeboflex.

I had previously mentioned the cool extremities to every dr. I see, and got no real response or suggestion about anything they could do about it. The surprising part about it is that problem is not what I went to her for. The bicep ache on my non-stroke side I had hoped the shoulder surgery would fix is still with me, a work in progress.

I made the same deal with her I made with the Active Release guy in Canada: 4 treatments to show improvement, if none I won't be back, improvement and I will. She agreed, and I am scheduled for another next week. She told me I will likely see some improvement after the first treatment, and I have, as documented above.

How long this improvement in circulation will last, I do not know. I do not know if the explanation she gave me as to what the problem was and how acupuncture fixes it is correct. Doesn't matter. Whatever she did worked after I had given Western medicine every opportunity to do it's best and fix the problem, all to no avail. I tried running this morning, chasing my dog, and I can now run 100 ft or so, a big improvement over the 10 ft I could do previously. Still not a pretty thing to see, and it really tires me out, but it is progress. This improvement may be due as much to the new AFO (carbon fiber, super lite) as anything else, I don't know. All I know is that progress is progress.

Well, Lesley is sleeping after 3 nite shifts, now on a long break. We can hardly wait until she cuts her hours back in the spring. The bread business continues to grow, we now have enough regular customers to keep us baking thru the winter a few times a month. Firing the outside oven is a challenging job for me in the winter, but the results are worth it.

Got to go now, the washing I put on earlier is ready for the dryer, a man's work is never done........