Anyone tried Dry Needling or Acupuncture for Pain or Neuropathy?

Thank you. I will check it out.

You're welcome.

I went to an ENT, everything looks normal but they did no scans. I asked my primary care physician to order an MRI to decide what to do next. She agreed, then referred me to a pain management doctor.

That was 3 weeks ago, still waiting to hear back from them to schedule an appointment. The pain management doctor must review my medical record before scheduling so don’t know how long that will take.

I will continue to do my PT exercises but now worried the stretching might be causing more inflammation. What’s a girl to do?

Your therapist did not really pay attention during physics classes, I guess? yes, metal conducts electricity, but electricity does not want to flow if there is no end point that it can flow through. In case of a needle, there is not point the electricity can go to.
There may be some limited success with acupuncture by stimulating some nerves, but it sure is not a scientific way to do this. (I have a doctorate in biomedical sciences, and that is the kind of stuff, we deal with)

Once I it was strongly suggested I had CH and not migraine, I started with some exercises the Sports Med doc demonstrated, as I could not afford PT (even with insurance). I had also been reading up on headaches on PainScience.com and corresponded briefly with the owner, as well as with a Doctor of PT on another website. The Sports Med doc had given me an Rx for tizanidine and I used about 10 of those (out of 30). I did all the exercises for mid back, shoulders, and pectoralis muscles on my own.

Just an FYI, migraines very often don't have any kind of aura, visual, olfactory, abdominal, or anything, but neck pain is common with migraine. It's hard to distinguish sometimes. Cervicogenic headache often does NOT have neck pain because the pain is referred, felt in the head when the source is in the neck.

Like many with chronic pain, my spine has arthritis, bone spurs, degenerating disks and stenosis, but I have managed to avoid surgery and stay active by refusing to sit still. A long time PT always says "motion Is lotion" and I believe him.

When my neck and shoulders are painful, I usually find gentle stretching helps release the muscles that are pulling at or otherwise irritating the nerves. I use heat before ( heating pad or rice pack) and cold pack after stretching. If I don't, the muscles tighten or spasm even more, causing more "pain buddies" to form.

What stretches do you use for your neck?
Sue

I agree we must keep moving! I do overhead pulldowns with an exercise band over the door frame, then put it about wast high and pull straight back with the band. Then with an easier band I place above the door handle I do “Y-T-I”s - arms up and out in a “Y” shape, up to center and back to the sides, arms out to the side shoulder height and back, then pull down and straight back for the “I”. I do 3 sets of 10 of each all b with lower back and core-strengthening exercises on the floor.

Then the PT has me doing a 1-minute stretch ear towards Right shoulder only til you feel a stretch (hard for me to go very far) and then turn head to side and look at armpit for 1 minute.

I don’t use cold packs after stretching, I will try that. Good suggestion. I have all those degenerative changes, too. We have to live with this neck for hopefully many years, so better to do simple things than to get aggressive with invasive procedures.

Sounds like you have found what works for you! My last PT and I customized my routine, but after a year and a half we need another visit to modify some things as the arthritis progresses.
Keep on moving
Sue

@lindes Thank you for your comment. I wanted to share some information with you about dry needling and myofascial release. Living fascia weaves through all the muscle fibers and organs in the body and is a conductor of electricity. When a therapist does dry needling, and places a needle into a trigger point in a muscle, it causes a twitch response which is a depolarization and release of the held electric charge that then causes the muscle to contract with a twitch. Here is some literature that describes this event.

The source is the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine:
https://www.jabfm.org/content/jabfp/23/5/640.full.pdf

Excerpts:
"Myofascial pain is a common form of pain that arises from muscles or related fascia and is usually associated with myofascial trigger points (MTrP). An MTrP is a highly localized, hyperirritable spot in a palpable, taut band of skeletal muscle fibers.1 When an MTrP is stimulated, 2 important clinical phenomena can be elicited: referred pain and a local twitch response. "

"Dry needling an MTrP is most effective when local twitch responses are elicited, 14 probably because of rapid depolarization of the involved muscle fibers, which manifests as local twitches.19 After the muscle has finished twitching, the spontaneous electrical activity subsides and the pain and dysfunction decrease dramatically. "

Here are a few links that may also be of interest:

This video illustrates living fascia and how it moves and remodels as it changes between solid and liquid forms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW0lvOVKDxE

This is our discussion on Myofascial release and there are numerous links in the first few pages about MFR therapy. I have a lot of experience with MFR therapy and it has helped me a lot. My therapist taught me how to do MFR so I can self treat at home between clinic sessions.

Isn't the video of living fascia interesting?