acupuncture experiences

[NbyNW]

I've tried acupuncture on three separate occasions and I remain on the fence as to whether it's right for me:

First time was to deal with shoulder pain from overuse when I was dragonboat racing. I was in Taiwan and my relatives took me to the best doctor they knew. I had four needles and 15 minutes under a heat lamp. One of the needles was in my wrist and caused swelling/bruising. I didn't notice any difference in my pain after the treatment, other than the swelling in my wrist which I didn't have before. So maybe my body was still dealing with too much trauma from the injury, or maybe the idea of acupuncture was something that I wasn't receptive to for whatever reason. But a strange sidenote to this story is that my grandmother visited me a couple of weeks later -- I was still in a great deal of pain and my wrist was still swollen. My grandmother was an experienced qi gong practitioner and gave me a treatment. My wrist felt better in a couple of days and my pain subsided for about a week.

Second time was meant to help with detox/lack of energy during a particularly stressful time in my life. I only had a single treatment, but I think my lack of response to it led to my doctor and I agreeing that it might not be the right direction to pursue.

Third time, my TMJ specialist wanted to see if it would help with muscle pain and tension associated with TMJ. Again, I would say in this case I just didn't respond positively or negatively to the treatment, so it didn't seem worth pursuing. Should we have tried a few more times to see results? I don't know. I do know that there are plenty of other tools available for managing my pain and healing process.

[Crankin]

I did acupuncture for a year and a half, to deal with anxiety and some pain from my fibromyalgia diagnosis and other sports related things that came up. My experience was mostly positive. The anxiety diminished within weeks and pretty much never came back. I was just generally more relaxed. It helped with my stomach/GI complaints, too. As far as the other things, I am not sure if it helped. I was also going to PT, doing yoga, and taking medication for parts of this time.
As time went on, I noticed that it would hurt when he took the needles out and sometimes I felt pain or stiffness for awhile afterwards. He switched to smaller needles and that worked. But, I stopped going in May, because I had spent all of the money in my HSA account (maybe buying the $500.00 glasses didn't help), so I decided to wait until January, when the HSA money starts again. I think I might find a new practitioner, though. The guy I went to is well known for dealing with difficult cases, but he was a little strange. A former racing cyclist, too. But, I didn't feel like anything was happening as time went on.

[zia]

Have you considered dry needling? Slightly different concept, but with similar objectives. This link discusses the difference. I didn't realize it was any different from acupuncture until recently. Several friends have had very positive outcomes; I am about to try it myself, and have had success with myofascial massage for hip pain.

I know this isn't exactly what you asked for, but thought it was at least worth a mention.

[OakLeaf]

According to my acupuncture doctor (a former environmental engineer who went to medical school for his second career, for two years, until he decided he didn't want to be a drug pusher [his words], and dropped out and went to acupuncture college instead) - anyway, according to him, "dry needling" is no different from acupunture, it's just a very small part of the discipline with a different label, that allows MDs to practice the same medicine that TCM practitioners have been doing for 5,000 years, while still expressing disrespect for what they call TCM.

Just as "immunotherapy" for allergies is a fancy MD name for homotoxicology.

[zia]

Hmmm, my "dry needler" is not an MD. She's an RN, and trigger point therapist. Her emphasis is entirely on anatomy and focusing on releasing specific contraction knots in the muscles. It's all very pragmatic.

I've never heard my practitioner mention "chi" or even mention TCM. This page talks at length about what she does. It is similar, but, as her site says, it's all based on Western medicine principles.

(I guess it could be a small part of TCM, but I don't know enough about it to really say!)

[Biciclista]

I have had acupuncture given by a few different practitioners, the last being Ping Wong, a wonderful person who incorporates some massage into what she did to me.
I had a frozen shoulder, a very painful condition. I know that what she did helped me to heal as well as I did, I have full range of motion now. Also, during headache season, my son got married last year. I was pretty stressed out for lots of family reasons, wedding included. I went to see Ping and was able to skate through that wedding like I was on cloud nine. Acupuncture is great. See if you can find someone who has been doing it a long time, I think their confidence helps !

[pfunk12]

I had acupuncture a few years ago for my back issues. I have spondylolysis -a stress fracture of the L5. I decided to try acupuncture since nothing else seemed to help me. Because the needles were put in my back, I had to lie on my stomach. This was the worst position possible for me. Lying on my stomach caused compression of my sciatic nerve so instead of feeling relaxed for 45 minutes and getting benefits from the acupuncture, I was in complete agony. Even though it didn't work for me (because of the unique circumstances), I would still try it again - if I was dealing with a different issue/injury.