Peaceful Mountain Acupuncture

A weekly blog about Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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Location: Rio Rancho, New Mexico, United States

This blog is going to be, primarily a venue for me to express my thoughts about Life and the complexities of the physical plane. My story is simple, I am an easy going individual and a moderate recluse. I am comfortable walking or sitting, talking or being silent. I am always seeking new friends and acquaintenances. I tend to look deeply and question myself about the lesson behind the experience. If you like what you read, please leave me a note, if you have a blog please leave me a link so I can read your writing as well. Thanks

Saturday, December 30, 2006

A serious case for an acupuncture treatment

Just before Christmas I had the honor of meeting a new patient. She came in and told me she had been getting acupuncture and massage. it was helping her a lot.

I asked her what she was getting treated for and she told me "3rd degree burns over most of my back, 60 some years ago." This was the start of our conversation and treatment.

I find her to be a true inspiration. I can only imagine the hardship she has endured, but she is a beautiful shining spirit through it all. I do not know how I would have fared given her challenges, but she seems to have risen above what ever it was that got placed in her way. Kind of put things back into perspective for me...

Anyway, her issue is that the scar tissue is reducing her range of motion. She is not in 'pain', but I am not sure if that is accurate, or if she has just had so much of it that what she is experiencing is not classified as "pain".

I used micro-current electrical stimulation through the most severe area of her scars. This would be an area about the size of my hand, just to the right of her spine, between the ribs and her hips. But her entire back, top to bottom is one big scar, hips and arms have some scars.

The scar tissue has developed into "Keloid scar" tissue, the kind that is very, very thick and pulled in tight. When she raises her arm the skin from her shoulder to her hip pulls tight as a rope.

When I am in school teaching I often mention "understanding the power of limits.' When I first looked at her I had to ask myself: "Is this beyond your limits?" We talked about that and I told her I had never treated anyone with this kind of a condition. We would try it and see.

This week when I saw her she said the treatment helped. That is always good to hear. Over the week I had been thinking about her and had an additional tool to pull out of the tool box, so to speak.

Ion-pumping cords are a Japanese approach to treating many things, but burns in particular. Their understanding is that (this is a Michaelism transliteration: Don't hold me responsible if I do not explain it exactly as others would...) "Pain is cause by an excess of positively charged ions in a local area." The ion-pumping cord has a diode in it that only allows the electrical flow to go in one direction.

After the micro-stimulation treatment, while those needles were still in place I attached an Ion-pumping cord to the site and one to a very distal point. On the outside of her ankle. After a few minutes I asked her if she felt anything at her ankle. Her response was that it felt like it was 'humming." HMMMMMMM, that is weird, but I come to expect that in my treatments.

Acupuncture can do many things. I always want to be willing to try somethingnew, as long as it makes sense in the treatment at that time. But what I was truly touched by was her Heart. Pure Gold!!!

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a wonderful tribute to the lady! Please keep your readers informed about progress or lack of it.

1:42 PM  
Blogger Dr. Barlow-Irick, PhD said...

Hey, did the ion thing help or not??? Curious minds want to know!

5:46 PM  

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