My First Accupuncture Experience
I gave myself a bit of a SI joint (sacro-iliac joint) sprain yesterday, which on one hand sucked, but on the other hand, gave me an opportunity to test something I’ve been meaning to try out for a while: accupuncture.
SI joint sprains can be pretty nasty. I see them all the time in practice, and they can be so severe that the patient drops straight to the ground and simply cannot move. Since the SI joints are the main weight-bearing joints of the pelvis, any weight-bearing position hurts… standing, sitting, especially bending or twisting. The SI joints have no muscles crossing the joint, and so are protected only by ligaments. So, spraining an SI joint is much like spraining an ankle. At first, you feel the initial jolt, and then, the inflammatory process kicks in and the whole area starts feeling worse as time goes by.
Ever sprain your ankle? At first, it hurts, and then, over the course of the next day or so, the ankle swells up as the inflammation develops. Same thing with the SI joints. And just like with ankle sprains, the more you can reduce the inflammation and swelling right from the get-go, the better off you are overall… less severity and less duration of symptoms.
Typically, you reduce inflammation of a sprain/strain by icing and resting. If you can, compressing and elevating the joint also helps, but you really can’t do that with the pelvis, so mostly, you have to ice the joint and lie flat. Unfortuntely for me, I had a full schedule that day and no time to find a replacement, so I had to treat patients with a moderate SI sprain.
Luckily, the accupunturist who practices in the office offered to perform a quick procedure to help reduce the pain and swelling. I was pretty skeptical, mostly because I’m completely and utterly frightened like a little schoolgirl when it comes to needles. Necessity won out over my jitters, and the next thing I knew, I had a bunch of needles stuck in my lower legs, feet, and hands.
Accupuncture is based on a theory of the flow of energy, or chi, along pathways called meridians that travel along the body in certain lines. It’s been used for thousands of years. In addition to my wimpy fear of needles, I’ve been holding off on whole-heartedly endorsing accupuncture mostly because I can’t explain it mechanically. Meridians don’t really follow neurological pathways and don’t really correspond well to any sort of conventional anatomical or physiological explanation. I’m used to being to explain things in nuts-and-bolts terms to my patients, and I just can’t do that with accupuncture.
So, I’ve been holding off. Now was my chance to experience it with a real, acute, symptomatic problem. If it didn’t work, I was going to have a serious problem getting through my patient visits for the day. Plus, I might start crying like a baby from the whole needle thing.
First off, let’s talk about the needles. They’re tiny. Really, really, tiny. Still scared the crap out of me, of course, but actually, the sensation of the needles going in is pretty much underwhelming. Calling it a pinch is REALLY exaggerating. The accupuncturist sort of taps the needle on the top to put it maybe 1/8th of an inch in.
There’s a bit of an ache-like sensation at the site of the needle insertion at first… I was told that’s the chi. Some of the sites are more achy than others. After the needles are placed, they stay there for a while… in my case, about fifteen to twenty minutes. I felt a couple of strange, difficult to describe sensations during that time. A certain “weighty” feeling in my lower legs. I started laughing for no reason at one point… that was weird.
After the needles were removed, I found that there was a mild decrease in the pain and stiffness. Before the treatment, my entire lower back was stiff and painful. Afterwards, it was much more localized and pin-point, reduced to the left SI joint that was injured.
About an hour after treatment, I found there was a significant reduction in pain and stiffness. I could stand and walk without discomfort, and move much more freely. By that evening, I was able to walk to a birthday party twenty minutes away, stand around, and walk back, all without additional discomfort.
The next day, while I still definitely felt the injury, it was greatly reduced. The last time I had an injury like this, it took three or four days to feel this improved. So needless to say, I’m pretty impressed. Impressed enough that I’m going to try a more comprehensive accupuncture treatment as soon as time allows.
Time, and my fear of needles, that is.