Stroke treatment
Please Note! Due to the high volume of irritating spam and slow-down of participation here, we are no longer accepting new comments, questions, or subjects on this Forum. We are keeping all the subjects and comments for review as there is a lot of good stuff here relating to practice-building subjects. So, dig deep! Thanks to everyone who participated here but it is time to move on to bigger projects educating the public about acupuncture! Matt Bauer
14-Jun-2014 07:38 AM
BethPosts: 1 | Hi I was wondering if I could get help with my patient that had a stroke almost 2 years ago. I treated her 4 months- 2x per week. Now we are doing 5-6x per week. She also has Lupus and a very compromised immune system. The pain is a lot better on left side, but no movement in left arm and left leg. Anyone have any treatment strategies that have worked for stroke victims. How long should I treat her? What is a reasonable amount of time to expect a change in movement? Thanks, Beth Schoon |
24-Jun-2014 12:28 PM
BethPosts: 1 | Hi Mathew, Sorry it has taken me awhile to get back to you. So everything I have read about stroke patients and acupuncture is that they will get better quicker with daily treatment. What comes To mind is the movie 9000 needles. I charge them a flat weekly rate. I also do massage on her once a month. I am also an LMT. But after 5 months of treatment, I am not as hopeful as I once was. I talked to them about stopping treatment, but they very much want to keep going. I feel like if she were to stop treatment now she would give up hope. The mental/emotional aspect is just as challenging as the physical. While I have you, any advice with a shingles patient? Doing the balance method with her. You shouldn’t put needles into the affected Thanks for all of your help and all that you do! Beth Schoon |
27-Jun-2014 08:15 AM
Matthew BauerPosts: 211 | Hi Beth – If the patient wants to keep going, by all means, keep going. At very least the treatments should be easing stress and helping ease discomfort and relax muscles. Keep trying different techniques to see if there is any spark of improvement in the numbness and, if so, follow-up with more of the same. As far as shingles goes, you can always do points on the opposite side of where the outbreaks are. The most common area of shingles is along an intercostal nerve and so wraps around one side or another of the trunk. If this is the case, you must be careful of needling areas around ribs because the lungs are under those ribs and the risk of pneumothorax is the number one serious injury all acupuncturists need to be careful to avoid. Make sure you needle very superficially there, barley breaking the skin. You can also use general pain and stress reducing points like Sp6 LI4,11 ear/shenmen, etc. If this is an intercostal nerve case PC 6 or 7 work well to affect the chest area. I hope this helps and thanks for posting here. Matthew Bauer |