Anyone tried Dry Needling or Acupuncture for Pain or Neuropathy?

Oh dear, Mikaylar, I’m so sorry you are suffering so. I am currently doing a 12 week series of 2x weekly acupuncture treatments. I think it has helped. My acupuncturist says acupuncture is a building process, thus the contract to do 12 weeks. Unfortunately I’ve been traveling about half the time so I can only go for 2 weeks on, then I’m gone 2 weeks.

In August, I had a sinus infection with frontal headaches for about 2 months (those sinus pressure headaches did finally go away). I hardly ever got headaches before this.

I originally started Acupunture for relief from 6 months of neck pain. After the sinus headaches went away, I started having another type of headache and head pain, which is worse when I bend over. This has been going on for about a month, starting the day I weaned myself off Gabapentin. I have degenerative disc disease with bone spurs and disc compression in my cervical spine. So these headaches may be related to my neck pain issues.

I’m hoping the acupuncture helps. I get home again on Sat for 2 more weeks of treatments. I was referred to a pain management doctor about 3 weeks ago, have yet to hear from them. Hopefully I will get in soon.

I hope we can both get relief because headaches and head pain are the pits!

Hi, yes, I did have an MRI a few weeks ago. The last one I had was about 2 years ago when I had neck pain on the right side. It showed some further degeneration, but not much different. The interesting thing I found was the doctor writing the MRI report this time around was more thorough in his descriptions.

I had to beg my PCP to order the MRI. She wanted to send me to pain management first, then I would need a current MRI ordered from them before they could safely do any injections (I’m not sure about that), then wait for another appt, then wait for a procedure, lots of waiting, but that’s OK, I would love to not have any invasive procedures and get better with exercise! I finally convinced her to order an MRI when I said “wouldn’t it be better to know what is going on in my neck before we decide which specialist I should go to?”.

The pain on the right side of my neck (2 years ago) finally went away (thank you, God!) after a year of PT and doing the exercises faithfully. I continue to do the PT exercises and have gone again to PT this year for my left sided neck pain. Worse thing is I can’t drive very far because the seatbelt causes a big pain flare after about 20 minutes of driving.

The MRI of my cervical spine took 20 minutes. They only put my head/ upper chest inside the machine and I did visualization and counting backwards by 3’s to keep my mind off where I was.

I hope you can get some relief! Vertigo is hell, I had it for 1 day when I transitioned off Gabapentin and I hope I never feel that way again! Now I’m getting headaches that radiate up from my neck into the back of my head that get worse when I bend over. Strange. I also have Sjogrens auto-immune disease. Hard to know sometimes what’s causing what.

Hi, yes, I did have an MRI a few weeks ago. The last one I had was about 2 years ago when I had neck pain on the right side. It showed some further degeneration, but not much different. The interesting thing I found was the doctor writing the MRI report this time around was more thorough in his descriptions.

I had to beg my PCP to order the MRI. She wanted to send me to pain management first, then I would need a current MRI ordered from them before they could safely do any injections (I’m not sure about that), then wait for another appt, then wait for a procedure, lots of waiting, but that’s OK, I would love to not have any invasive procedures and get better with exercise! I finally convinced her to order an MRI when I said “wouldn’t it be better to know what is going on in my neck before we decide which specialist I should go to?”.

The pain on the right side of my neck (2 years ago) finally went away (thank you, God!) after a year of PT and doing the exercises faithfully. I continue to do the PT exercises and have gone again to PT this year for my left sided neck pain. Worse thing is I can’t drive very far because the seatbelt causes a big pain flare after about 20 minutes of driving.

The MRI of my cervical spine took 20 minutes. They only put my head/ upper chest inside the machine and I did visualization and counting backwards by 3’s to keep my mind off where I was.

I hope you can get some relief! Vertigo is hell, I had it for 1 day when I transitioned off Gabapentin and I hope I never feel that way again! Now I’m getting headaches that radiate up from my neck into the back of my head that get worse when I bend over. Strange. I also have Sjogrens auto-immune disease. Hard to know sometimes what’s causing what.

Good luck, Jetsetter. However, be careful with pain management. My neurologist at Jefferson Headache Center in Philly told me to not let them give me opioids for pain. Acupuncturist is treating my back and neck too. Hang in there! Mikayla

The problem with MRIs is that they usually are not diagnostic. Many people, 30 years of age and up, have findings on MRI which are normal signs of aging. More severe problems in the cervical spine would cause different symptoms. That's why docs don't rush to do them.

Many types of headaches respond to movement therapy of the upper back and shoulders where the muscles that support the neck are. Neck exercises and stretching can make neck pain and headaches worse.

Had PT on my cervical neck after the nerve blocks did nothing.

The pain management office was very clear up front in stating that they don’t prescribe opioids.

I think it will be a combo of PT, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, and possibly injections.

We shall see!

It was recommended to try by my pt. I have DDD in my neck and that's where they want to do. Had anybody tried it and did it help. My C5,6 and 7 have no cushion left.

I'm off to my 4th acupuncture today. So far, nothing. I wish I had more hope. I don't know anyone who has tried it. Chiropractic did nothing for my headache and he was sure he could help by working on my neck. Migraine has many faces. I get auras regularly but light/sound doesn't bother me. Neurologist says daily persistent headache and migraine. Oh goodie! The PBS channel had a show on last night about pain/brain connection. Try to find it on Demand.

How could neck exercises and stretching make neck pain worse? You got my attention.

Of course we all have degenerative changes in our spines. My rheumatologist told me my MRI looked pretty normal for a person my age (68).