Traveler. Question Accupuncture

Hi Pat!
You are such a wonderful friend to still be by her side - what a lucky cal she is to have you in her life. Thank you from someone who understands your sacrifice.

And thank you for your kind words. I've had to have my hand held a lot through this as well. We're in this together, my friend!

Acupuncture is a very different type of medicine, and believe me, I'm a "Doubting Thomas" type of person, and I really don't convince easily, but not only did I see a major improvement in my own health, but in my husband's as well. He even played guinea pig and saw the practitioner for several weeks before I did to help protect me.

I really can't speak highly enough of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) & acupuncture forms of medicine, it's all up to the practitioner's ability as to how effective they are. I've had two top notch TCM & acupuncture practitioner s and a few not so top notch practitioners. The difference is amazing - one will make very little difference and one is like opening the curtain and opening a window for your health. Experience and intuition are highly prized to find in any practitioner and TCM practitioners are no different.

When I first started seeing my first TCM doc, I was close enough, and able to leave the house often enough that I went twice a week for the first 4 -6 weeks, then once a week for a long while, then twice a month and so on until I only saw him once in a while for what I called "tune ups". LOL!

When I was incredibly ill with Lyme and company, I couldn't leave the house but once a week, and I had to sleep bit ways and was bed bound for two days after each visit. Before that I
was mostly house bound, but not bed bound, so it was hard to take it on faith that this was going to help, but I did. And boy am I glad I did.

At the 8 month mark, I had started seeing my TCM practitioner, which was 2 months after starting my Lyme treatment, I turned a corner and knew I was going to not only survive this, but that I was going to be okay. Many of my symptoms had lessened in severity significantly by then.

She will most definitely herx if this practitioner is effective, so you/she needs to be very firm about not pushing her too fast.

If the practitioner is good, she will want to maintain a relationship with him for a very long time, but may not need to see him, or someone else highly experienced and highly intuitive, more than once or twice a year, depending on what her needs are.

Thesis fairly slow form of healing, but that's because, if they are highly experienced and highly intuitive, they can help correct the body at very deep levels. I honestly believe that had I still been able to use my TCM practitioner, that I would not have ended up with adrenaline thyroid issues, as the imbalance would have been noted and corrected before it got to be much of an issue.

I was very, very lucky in that my TCM doc was very inexpensive, as my husband was on disability only by then. While we are comfortable, we can't afford for me to see very expensive docs. I see one now that charges quite a bit, but not like LLMDs.

I'm sorry this got so long, but I wanted to try to explain some things as well as I could. If you still have questions, or if I helped to create more questions (LOL!), ask away! I'm not the only one that uses acupuncture and TCM.

And one last time, I can't emphasize enough that it's all up to how much experience and how good of intuition the practitioner has as to how effective they will be.

Traveler. THANK YOU. 🌻
I've sent a copy of your reply to her. She is studying it-- determing if she wants to continue with accupuncture. I have gone with her to these visits. She is very very thin (abdomen and legs) and when the needles are inserted around the belly button area (not all of them cause this) she gets pain that tingles/burns from the abdomen down. He also places some that are on the insides of her legs (between knee and ankle) and it burned down to the toes. She told him that it hurts and he just move the needles over slightly. Then she lies for exactly one hour. He always checks her tongue before and after and there are noticeable changes.
(I think I see it too).

Wondering if this seems like normal reactions. She is worried about the tingling stuff. He states that accupuncture can't hurt you. He has patients from the southeast and I'm recognizing their cars in his parking area after having been here about six times. One said has been coming 'for long time". (THe dr also mentioned that he was called in to do anesthesia by accupuncture for surgery for someone allergic to chemical anesthesia ). ?

Thanks very much for your thoughts Traveler. We really appreciate them. Pat🌺

Don't know if you saw this, Traveler, but autocorrect changed a sentence to "At the 8 month margarine" LOL.

Just to jump in on something that Traveler said. You not only need to weigh cost but also how far away in too. I found that several forms of therapy while effective at the moment they happened were not worthwhile in the long run.

I had acupuncture from western medicine doctor who I traveled 45 minutes one way. He wouldn't take insurance so it was costly even though some was reimbursed by insurance. I did find it helpful but the effect didn't last too long. When I went to him with a request for a different treatment (or a differential diagnosis other than fibromyalgia) he brushed me off and said all I needed was acupuncture, I never went back.

Chiropractic was good until insurance stopped paying, then it got costly. One day I decided that I wasn't getting enough relief and stopped. A friend said later that she stopped because by she got to the parking lot the effect was gone. Me too.

Same with warm water therapy. I'm still trying to convince my husband to put a Endless Pool in the basement. So far no luck, but he's not getting a sound proof music room either. LOL!

Stick with your friend. She's lucky to have you.
Kim