The Lane Cove rooms are at 2 Austin Street, directly opposite the Lane Cove Library and a few metres from Longueville Road. If you are coming from the village it is a walk of two or three minutes, and the parking behind the library is the easiest option in the middle of the day.
Lane Cove sends a particular mix of problems through the door. There are the desk-and-commute necks and low backs from St Leonards and the city, the shoulders and elbows of a suburb that plays a lot of tennis, and the knees and Achilles tendons that come with living on a hillside — the stairs down to Tambourine Bay and the streets off Burns Bay Road are their own kind of training load. Lane Cove also has a lot of people in their thirties and forties carrying small children, which is its own demand on a back.
A first appointment is mostly questions and movement testing: where the pain is, what makes it worse, what it stops you doing, and how it has behaved over weeks rather than days. From there you should leave knowing what is proposed, roughly how long it is expected to take, and what would mean changing the plan.
Worth bringing: any imaging or specialist letters you already have, a list of medications, and the shoes you actually walk or train in. If the pain is new and severe, follows a significant fall, or comes with numbness, weakness, fever or any change in bladder or bowel control, see a doctor first — that is a medical assessment, not a treatment question.
The nearest alternative if Lane Cove does not suit you is the Freshwater side, about 14 kilometres away across the Spit.
If sore joints have led you to book acupuncture, a handful of plain questions will help you understand the plan before any needles are used.
Whether it is a knee that grumbles on the stairs, a hip that aches after a long drive or a shoulder that protests when you reach for the top shelf, joint pain often prompts people to try acupuncture for the first time. The most helpful preparation is not research into theory but a short list of plain questions.
People sometimes decide a detail does not matter and skip it. Please do not. Tell Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, about pregnancy or possible pregnancy, all medicines including blood thinners, and any implanted device such as a pacemaker or joint replacement. It is also reasonable to ask why particular points are being chosen. A good explanation gives you enough to make a decision, while being honest that no procedure comes with a promise of zero complications.
Try separating what hurts from what you would like to be able to do. Less stiffness when getting out of a chair, a better grasp of why a joint flares, or knowing when to return to your GP or physiotherapist for further checks can all be worthwhile aims. Ask Christine how acupuncture would be reviewed and what would make her suggest a different course.
Printing or saving these questions on your phone before visiting Christine at the Freshwater clinic means nothing gets forgotten in the moment. Tick them off as you go, and add any new ones that come up while you talk.
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