Friday, September 20, 2013

Needles

Appropriate title for a quilter's post, right? 

I have been in physical therapy for months, right arm, epicondrus-or something, showing off my horrible spelling skills.  Tennis elbow.  Painful to lift anything heavy.  Not allowed to push or pull or twist off lids, etc.  Getting better, sort of, but still painful and last week super-inflamed again, tight muscles, very bad.  I got a cortisone shot, and no real improvement after a week.  So we moved on to "Dry Needling"
Mostly couldn't feel the tiny needles going in.  Less noticeable than a mosquito bite.  But then after 4 minutes he TWISTED them.  3 out of the 5 were barely noticeable, twinges, a tightening, but two were like being shocked and he only turned one of the painful horrible ones a quarter turn before I yelled out to stop.  Afterwards I got an arm massage and then moist heat for 10 minutes and felt super relaxed, almost sleepy, mighty fine.  Typing right now is ok, but they warned me I could be more sore tomorrow.  And typically 3-5 sessions of needling.
Of course I asked if I could take the needles home to make jewelry/art.  They looked like earring findings, perfect wirey interesting tops (acupuncture needles).  When I can use my right arm again to create I will take a photo!
The funniest thing:  once they were in, you could flick them and watch the needles wave and bounce around, no pain.  I just couldn't move my arm.  No blood.  Really cool if it works...status report later.

6 comments:

John said...

Accupuncture worked to get Evelyn birthed.

Deb said...

I didn't realize you are still dealing with this arm pain. I'm sorry. I hope this method helps. Pretty interesting too.

Jane Babcock said...

Sounds brave.

Emmalyn said...

Brave indeed!

I am glad they are still working on helping you!

I am suposed to be working on my posture. Lots of stretches and exercise to strengthen neck muscles. Pain is hard to deal with.

And must be hard to limit creating!

BobandLu said...

Yikes! Yes, please do share if it is a good help. Or not help.

Lisa Chin said...

That is really interesting! I've never had acupuncture but been fascinated by it. I hope it helps!