🩰 Carly’s Story: Don’t Ignore the Little Things

Hi, I’m Carly (officially Carly Lepore, LAc.). If we haven’t met yet, I’m one of the practitioners here at AB Acupuncture, and I’m so grateful to be part of this community.

Like many acupuncturists, Chinese Medicine wasn’t my first path. I grew up dancing, studied dance in college, and performed around the city for years. Dance gave me a deep understanding of movement and more than a few injuries.

Carly's treatments often involve laughs!

One of the first was when I was sixteen. I sprained my ankle bad. The kind of sprain that swells up instantly, turns a terrifying shade of purple, and hurts with every step. But I was young and invincible, so naturally I was back in ballet class the next day (mostly standing on one leg and making pained faces, but I showed up).

Ironically, this didn’t start as a dance injury. We had an early snow day that year, and, in my excitement, I thought it was a brilliant idea to stand up on my sled as it shot down my neighbor’s hill. I ended up crawling home.

Sure, I did some PT. But after years of daily heel raises and calf stretches in dance class, the PT routine felt repetitive. My ankle hurt when I walked for weeks, twinged in class for months, and ached every time it rained for years.

By the time I started seeing acupuncturists, the ankle pain was so routine I barely remembered to mention it – one of many small mistakes in my long history of ignoring this injury.

Flash forward to acupuncture school: a classmate had a patient in the school clinic with a sprained ankle, and our supervisor offered to demo a needling technique that – brace yourself – involved using three needles in the same point at the ankle then twirling them. They asked for a volunteer to demonstrate on. I was like “oh, I have an old sprained ankle that still hurts.”

My supervisor inserted the needles, made that face practitioners make when they find something really concerning or really satisfying, gave the needles a twirl around, then removed them. Honestly, it felt anticlimactic.

Until the next time it rained... and nothing hurt. My ankle hasn’t bothered me since.

Now, I’m not saying every decade-old injury disappears with one point and a few twirls (though wouldn't that be nice?). I had recently changed my diet to support my active lifestyle, was taking herbs that supported my joints and connective tissue, and was getting regular acupuncture. Still, it was a moment I’ll never forget – and a perfect reminder of how powerful this medicine can be.

So here’s my not-so-subtle nudge: Don’t ignore the little things. That “random” ache or “weird” symptom might be more treatable than you think. And while acupuncture can do a lot, the way you support yourself outside the clinic matters just as much.