Doreen and Laura's Excellent Adventure: Still in Oro Valley!

Yes - still in Oro Valley, Arizona

(Accupuncture and sightseeing)

March 1, 2017 - April 26, 2017

We were all set to begin traveling again when, by pure chance, Laura spotted an small advertisement announcing a talk on "Healing Soft Tissue Injury" to be given by a local acupuncturist. We both went to the talk and were very impressed with Steve Liu (the acupuncturist) and what he had to say. I know at least some of you are aware that Laura has had many many problems with her arms due to multiple injuries through the years. We've often wondered why the injuries never seemed to completely heal and Steve explained why. Basically, it's because injuries are not treated correctly by Western Medicine practitioners who emphasize using ice and NSAIDs to bring down the inflammation resulting from the injury. Steve says that inflammation is a necessary part of the healing process so you should never try to minimize it. In order to get an old injury to finally heal he uses deep cross fiber massage (the kind that hurts and often leaves bruises), needles (acupuncture), plus infrared heat and laser light to increase the blood flow to the injured area. Laura called for an appointment the very day we heard the lecture. Her first appointment lasted 3 hours (can you imagine), which consisted mostly of talking because Steve is so passionate about what he does. (His knowledge extends far beyond acupuncture and he is a fascinating guy.) Luckily Laura was his last appointment of the day. Beginning March 1st Laura began going 3 times a week until her last appointment on April 24th. She had so many problem areas that Steve dubbed her his "Queen of soft tissue injuries". He worked on her shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands and everything in between. Almost immediately she could tell that what we was doing was working. Even with her appointments now over her arms will continue to heal via the body's own normal healing process which takes about 90 days. During this time we've become friends with Steve, even going out to dinner and a movie with him. He even rode his bike from his home to our motorhome one Sunday morning.

Steve in our motorhome in his "biking outfit"! It's completely color coordinated!

Steve and Laura

My mom was absolutely delighted that we stayed on in order for Laura to get her treatments. In fact, she started going to Steve as well to see if he could help lessen the pain in her back and I went for some treatments in my lower back.

Here's my mom getting a combination of Chinese accupuncture (needles) and German accupuncture (laser light)!

Since we stayed in the area for so long my mom managed to find all kinds of jobs for us to do. Every time we went to see her she had thought of something else that needed doing. She even volunteered me to help her friends with things they needed help with.

One fun thing we did was to join her and her friends every Friday night to play Mexican Train. We really enjoyed being with and teasing them. It's high stakes though! 25 cents to play for the night - winner takes all.

Betty, Elaine, Inez and Patty - some of our Mexican Train friends.
The game is over and now it's time for cookies.

Were were in the Tucson area for so long that our friend Helen returned on March 25 to spend a few weeks before driving her motorhome back to Whidbey Island. While she was there, we got together for a trip to see the famous Arizona Sonora Desert Museum which is nothing short of fabulous. We had been there back in the 90's but it's much more extensive now. In fact, it's huge! We were especially lucky because the wildflowers were blooming while were were there, making the experience even more wonderful. If you get to Tucson, make sure to include this on your itinerary.

Laura with bat ears. This is how big our ears would be if they were in proportion to the size of a bat's ears to it's body!

One of the walkways in the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. It was hot hot hot that day.

Sculpture of a raptor on a dead saguaro cactus.

The ocotillo bush (it is not a cactus) blooms every April in conjunction with the arrival of migrating hummingbirds.
They may or may not have leaves on their stalks when they bloom.

We were fortunate to see the spring wildflowers while we were at the museum.

A good example of a "crested" saguaro. They are few and far between
and as yet no one knows why this formation begins.

We got together again with our friends Leslie and Madeline for a picnic and tour of the Tucson Botanical Gardens. This is another wonderful spot - beautiful gardens and a butterfly house with species from all over the world.