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.
It is easy to remember prescriptions and forget the occasional tea, powder or supplement. A complete list makes any conversation about Chinese herbal medicine more specific.
People living with ongoing aches often build up a small collection of remedies: an anti-inflammatory for bad days, paracetamol in the handbag, fish oil or turmeric from the supermarket, magnesium before bed, perhaps a tea a friend recommended. Prescription medicines are usually easy to recall. The occasional powder or capsule is the kind of thing that slips the mind in an appointment.
When Chinese herbal medicine is being considered, an accurate list lets the conversation be specific rather than general. Two products both described as natural are not automatically compatible, and an over-the-counter pain reliever can matter as much as a prescription.
Rather than relying on memory, bring the information to Dr Christine Shen, Acupuncturist, at the Freshwater clinic. A phone photo of each label works well, and saves you from carrying a bag of bottles across town. Include:
If you are thinking of adding a new product while on herbs, ask Christine first rather than combining things and simply hoping they agree.
Once a herbal plan is in place, keep the formula's name, directions and review arrangements with the original packaging. Update Christine whenever another medicine changes. If you notice a new symptom and are unsure whether a product is involved, contact the clinic rather than adjusting doses by trial and error.
A list on your phone or a note folded into your wallet takes only a few minutes to put together. It saves guesswork for everyone, and it gives you a clearer picture of what you are actually taking each week, which is useful information in its own right.
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