Accupunture....experiences? (Now I do...very interesting).

Ive never had acupuncture. My insurance actually has limited visit coverage for it now (wow) from an actual Chinese trained / license acupuncturist.

Willing to try it for my left shoulder and arm rehab. Ive done as much as I can do for it after the infections cleared, prob at the 80% mark of strength and range of comfortable movement. (Had frozen shoulder one time years ago.) . Im hoping to improve more.

For those who've tried it, Was it worthwhile? What can I expect?
(if your infection was still going, this might not have worked though)

NOTE: My neck/head is now straight on my body, with similar foot weight distribution (NUCCA achieved this!), so Im finally ready for more fine tuning below the neck. (Normal Chiro itself will not achieve this, it has limitations that I met years ago).

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After clearing the infections years ago, I have had /tried almost every other physical rehab out there for soft tissue rehab and have done many variations of myofacial and trigger point release (clinical), and then this type of muscle rehab on my own, with success but not 100%. Lyme also left me with slight scoliosis , this does not help leg and arm health (improved though). .

The closest to acupuncture was dry needling (its deep) in trigger point knots and it had a low success rate. Prolotherapy which is similar but very costly ive not tried either.

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[Im pretty much trying to get my nervous system in old injured areas retrained without using advanced electrical feedback nuero re-learning devices (very costly appointments and rare/new treatments unless your a pro team athlete). Myself and "dcd" here had posts on this separate topic a few years ago. I even tried it two time$.]

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Post Edited (astroman) : 4/28/2023 9:49:55 AM (GMT-8)

I am a huge fan of acupuncture. With a skilled practitioner, it's as though they and your body speak a language that you do not. Very cool.

I have found it helpful for various kinds of pain, tension, migraines, other headaches, allergies, anxiety, appetite, gastroparesis, menstrual issues, fatigue, brain fog, and so many other things. For the years that I had gastroparesis, my weekly acupuncture appointment was able to get my parasympathetic nervous system on-track enough that I felt both hungry and able to eat for about two hours after treatment. That may not sound like much, but it kept me alive, truly.

You can expect to talk with the practitioner for a while beforehand so they have a sense of what you need. They are likely to care more about descriptions of symptoms rather than diagnoses. They use very tiny needles that go in with a tiny, very tolerable poke feeling and then don't feel like anything. Some people don't feel them being inserted. Most will be in your lower legs and feet, lower arms and hands, face and head, upper chest, and possibly ears. If any of those locations makes you feel weird, then you can just decline those. Wear loose pants and sleeves, and plan to take off your socks. You will lie there relaxing for a while - usually twenty minutes to an hour. They might play music or let you choose your own. They probably will give you bolsters, pillows, blankets, etc. to keep you comfortable. Occasionally I would experience a very sore needle spot, which practitioners would say was actually a good thing because it meant that spot needed to be addressed, but they will move the needle if it's uncomfortable for more than a few seconds. (Most people don't experience the sore spots like I did, but I thought I'd mention it so that you don't feel irked that no one told you it could happen!)

Go for it. How great that it's covered by insurance for you!

Update; the following two days after this, I felt a little uneasy, hard to sleep, and my overall body muscle tension was also a little elevated.

I don’t know if this is coincidence, but I also read that this can happen after the first few appointments with some people.

Post Edited (astroman) : 4/16/2023 8:08:27 AM (GMT-8)

7 days after............some interesting observations.

First a little history of my decades of body tension. It improved a lot before recent acupuncture, but not completely and was mostly on my left side, from neck to feet. I did many, many different forms of muscle and tendon manual work after ABX, which help reverse damage, but not 100%.

1)Well, after acupuncture my left side loosened up.

2)then the tension on my right side became more obvious since my left doesn't bother me much at all.

3)then the right sided stuff started to change and loosen up a little.

4)my walking gate is almost normal, but I feel kind of weak and a little unstabil with this new more normal posture and gate.

This is also the reverse order that it originally progressed to decades ago when I thought I had MS.

I thought this lower body tension would be a good opportunity to go to the chiro. I did and adjustments were way easier than in the past. this was kind of a test.

Interesting how a nervous system can "lock" the muscles in place during injury or infection...and then not know when to let "go". Acupuncture seems to reset the nervous system and let it "let go" of the past tension memory. For how long...I do not know yet.

I decided to try this since its cheaper than "Wave" therapy (which has about four brands of electrical impulse machines that re-train your nerves, I had another post on that, but did not try it...yet).

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Note: if this keeps going well, getting straighter, I will get a new spine x-ray in the future to compare with my 15-20 year old "scoliosis with lyme" x-ray. Conventional spine Drs said it cant be corrected. I hope they are wrong.

The spine is like a utility power pole, and the muscles are the "guide wires" holding it up straight. It needs equal tension to be straight. The muscle function can be influenced by any muscle tissue damage, but also obviously controlled by the nerves. Both can hold memory of previous damage much like a frozen garden hose will stay coiled until layed out in the warm sun. The many various forms of PT and myofascial release can correct muscle and fascia tissue, but not the nerves controlling it.

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Post Edited (astroman) : 4/28/2023 9:42:43 AM (GMT-8)

I have not gone back yet.

Per my other thread: https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=4320325

My left muscles loosened up so much that my left knee sublexated (popped out of position/slight dislocation).

My nervous system and muscles have been "guarding" my left hip and leg for decades- it was just discovered that my left ACL tendon mostly dissolved (MRI) decades ago after I unknowingly severed it..

Hey there,

I did acupuncture for two years prior to being diagnosed with late stage Lyme (+15 coinfections).

Acupuncture would make me hallucinate. Does this happen to anyone else? Would that be Bartonella that does that?

My first acupuncture experience I had a panic attack, and from then on, it had to be gentle, very tiny needles as I was extremely sensitive to pain. I did it for nearly 2 years because it was calming and it felt like the acupuncturist was the only person in the world who actually cared about my health. They ask you questions and for updates each time you go in. It was really nice but I never got to a point where it didn’t hurt or to where the hallucinations would go away. The hallucinations only happened while in session with the needles in. Eventually I stopped during Covid and just didn’t resume. But I have heard of it helping many people.

Katya, I see this is your first post, welcome to the forum. Feel free to make a post about your lyme story should you wish to do that.