Pins and Needles

I managed to tear a ligament in my elbow several months ago. This was a rather severe tear and almost required what is sometimes called “Tommy John Surgery” but luckily or perhaps unluckily didn’t. However, it does require some physical therapy and pain management. I’ve tried the standard physical therapy stuff for other injuries and while it worked it was a lot of trouble and rather expensive; our health insurance didn’t want to cover that much either. So, I took the alternative medicine route.

Acupuncture.

Wow, 10 sessions each about 45 minutes to an hour long. It would be hard to get this amount of attention for the cost from a traditional physical therapist. However, if the treatment doesn’t work then I’m still paying too much. To be fair, I can’t actually say if the acupuncture has worked or not. It is possible that the elbow and hamstring he is working on would have improved anyway. But, they have improved and the acupuncture does appear to be working. So, I can, I believe, rate the procedure at least a qualified thumbs up for pain relief

I’d heard that Acupuncture was a painless treatment. I heard wrong. Acupuncture, at least the treatments I’m receiving really hurt. Once all the needles are in, about the time I’ve managed to relax, the acupuncturist twist them for effect or possibly for fun so he can hear me howl; since he doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak a whole lot of Chinese I’ll never know .

Something that is kind of strange is that when all the needles are in my arm the arm is paralyzed. It hurts, I can feel it, but I cannot move it. The leg can still be moved.

Anyway, I have about 4 more treatments and am looking forward to a pain free arm.

Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The on pins and needles blogger