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.
Many people living with pain already take several medicines. Before adding a Chinese herbal prescription, a careful safety conversation comes first.
People with ongoing aches often have a cupboard of products already: anti-inflammatories, a sleep aid, perhaps a joint supplement bought online. Adding a Chinese herbal formula to that mix is a decision that deserves a proper safety conversation, because a herb, however familiar its name, is still an active substance.
Herbal medicines can be supplied as granules, capsules, liquids or raw ingredients for cooking down at home. These are not interchangeable, even when the label names look similar. Swapping one for another without advice can change what you are actually taking. When you meet Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, bring a complete list of prescription medicines, over-the-counter pain relievers, supplements and anything ordered from overseas websites.
One practical question is what to do if you forget a dose or notice a new symptom. Having that answer written down saves guesswork later. It is also worth knowing what not to do: do not raise a dose because your knee still aches, do not pass a prescription to a partner with similar pain, and do not assume a product suits you because it seemed to help a relative.
A personal herbal plan should come with the product name, clear directions and an agreed time to review it. Store those directions with the original packaging so nothing is lost. If your GP changes a medicine or you start something new for pain, let Christine know before continuing. When you are unsure whether a symptom is linked to the herbs, ask instead of experimenting with the dose yourself.
Herbal consultations with Christine are held at the Freshwater clinic. Arriving with your medicine list already written out, including doses and how often you take them, gives the consultation a firm footing and leaves more time for your questions.
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