Patient: Female, age 56
Complaints: Chronic left shoulder pain with boxing as a hobby and dog walking as a profession.
Treatment Process: The patient had noticed slight improvement with the first treatment until the second visit 5 days later. The same acupuncture points were repeated on the second visit, the patient reported that the left arm pain immediately inflamed after the but the next day it was better than before she started acupuncture. A different acupuncture point combination was given on the third visit. On the fourth visit, the patient reported a daily incremental improvement with an overall improvement of 75%. The patient was given instruction for self-administered acupressure to use at home and the pain continued to decrease.
Discussion: It is difficult to tell whether a treatment is correct when there is a slight improvement. Often, an alternative acupuncture combination is given to compare the relative difference. In this case, the second option had resulted in a much more significant improvement.
Disclaimer: Acupuncture results may vary since each individual case is different.
