Anyone tried Dry Needling or Acupuncture for Pain or Neuropathy?

Posted by judypall @judypall, Mar 22, 2019

Has anyone had any luck with either dry needling or acupuncture? I have tried each of them one time. But made my feet tingle more. The PT who was administering the dry needling said that it goes through a cycle of pain to get better. I wasn’t too sure on that. Anyone?

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@debkl

Rachel Zoffness has a lot of info on the brain's role in pain. There are a bunch of You Tube interviews, podcasts, and articles on the web. She's very kind and really explains things well.

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This is the path I'm researching now. It makes a lot of sense.

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@jetsetter

My main issue is neck pain on my left side. I had it 2 years ago on my right and it went away after a year of me doing PT. I continued to do the PT exercises but about 6 months ago it started to hurt on the left side.

In August I started having sinus pressure and frontal headaches that lasted for about 2 months. I have Sjogren’s, so we have very dry mucosa including sinuses. Then those sinus type headaches stopped and I began to have pain radiating up from my neck to the back of my head. I also have what I call skull/top of head pain and headaches which my PCP thinks may be originating in the cervical spine DDD.

These headaches started in Oct. the day after I quit taking gabapentin (weaned from 900 mg day to 300 to 100 to 0 over a 3 weeks period), so it’s only been about 6 weeks of weird headaches that seem aggravated when I bend forward or move my head. Strange… any ideas anyone?

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@jetsetter Cervicogenic headaches can be generated from the spine. If your vertebrae are out of alignment just a bit, or twisted or tilted or if they slip forward, etc that puts extra pressure on the muscles between the neck and head and causes pain and muscle spasms. It can also cause vertigo. All of that happened to me because of a herniated cervical disc. Your physical therapist should be able to assess if your neck is out of alignment. If you have not been evaluated by a spine specialist, you may want to do that and get some imaging. If you have had a whiplash in the past, there can be changes going on with the spine even years later. I had a spinal fusion which solved these problems and gave me back quality of life.

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@jenniferhunter

@jetsetter Cervicogenic headaches can be generated from the spine. If your vertebrae are out of alignment just a bit, or twisted or tilted or if they slip forward, etc that puts extra pressure on the muscles between the neck and head and causes pain and muscle spasms. It can also cause vertigo. All of that happened to me because of a herniated cervical disc. Your physical therapist should be able to assess if your neck is out of alignment. If you have not been evaluated by a spine specialist, you may want to do that and get some imaging. If you have had a whiplash in the past, there can be changes going on with the spine even years later. I had a spinal fusion which solved these problems and gave me back quality of life.

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Thank you Jennifer,

My PCP ordered an MRI of my cervical spine recently that shows various problems.

She referred me to a pain management doctor and I’m waiting to get a call to schedule an appointment.

The Pain management group I’m going to also works with neurologists so I’m hoping they can help me before the headaches get worse. Definitely infringes on my quality of life, so it may be time to do something more than take medication.

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@debkl

Look into cervicogenic headache. The pain pattern fits that, as does being triggered by position. The olfactory nerve can get irritated, causing what feels like sinusitis. It is often misdiagnosed as migraine.

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Yes, I am also seeing a cervicogenic neck doctor. He gave up too.

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@mikaylar

Yes, I am also seeing a cervicogenic neck doctor. He gave up too.

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A chiropractor or spine specialist MD? Did he examine vascular structures?

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@cookiepic

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.

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Chiropractor gave up too. PT didn't help. I had 4 blood/glue patches in my spine to seal up small holes. That didn't work either.

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@mikaylar

Chiropractor gave up too. PT didn't help. I had 4 blood/glue patches in my spine to seal up small holes. That didn't work either.

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What modalities were used in PT?

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@cookiepic

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.

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Mostly stretching my neck and me doing neck exercises. I have a herniation, arthritis and a bone spur in my neck.

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@cookiepic

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.

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Did nothing for me.

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@cookiepic

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.

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Did nothing for me but lighten my wallet.

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