I’m a young 65, I’m not over the hill just yet. I must admit, my joints do feel a bit stiff sometimes! If I’ve spend the day in the garden the following morning is a real struggle. I know what the answer is, of course: cut back on the gardening.

All those hours in unnatural positions as I dig around in the dirt and generally put strain on my lower back. It’s terrible, and I keep telling myself it’s time to stop. It’s that, or I invest in some proper equipment to make getting down and standing up easier. Can’t be doing exactly what I was thirty years ago!

Adriana next door has been suggesting acupuncture to help with the pain. I’ve never been too keen on the idea of needles left in your skin. Seems like something that wouldn’t be too comfortable to go through. Yesterday she said something that caught my interest. Her son (nice boy – great with kids), recently took a dry needling course here in Melbourne. Of course, I didn’t have the foggiest idea what that was, so I inquired. Well, it turns out that dry needling is this new-fangled treatment that looks a bit like acupuncture, but is grounded in science. I suppose science can be trusted, so I had to look it up.

Sure enough, it does involved dry needles, but they don’t stay in your skin. They’re put in to trigger a response and then promptly removed. There was all this research behind it that got me interested. And you know what…it’s not too late in life for me to try something new! If it helps with my pain, all the better. Now I know that a nice boy like Roy is the kind of person who takes this course, I feel like I’m in safer hands. He’s been a qualified physio for many years and has very strong hands.

Now, all I need to do is convince Roy to use the skills he learned at the dry needling course on my poor back. I hope he accept baked good as payment. An old girl can dream.