Nerve damage from acupuncture

forum post

Nerve damage from acupuncture

Published on 10-11-2013


"archived-user" has authored 334 other posts.

I've had the horrible experience of going to 2 different acupuncturists over the course of 5.5 years and having a nerve hit both times. The 1st time happened 5.5 years ago & I saw a student acupuncturist in the US. This was my first error. he forgot to remove all of the needles and so left a needle on the outside of each of my ankles. When I moved, I felt a sharp pain. He aggravated this by rotating my ankle, and that caused pain again. This was when he realized he had left needles in. Ever since I've been suffering from neuropathy in both legs & feet. This also set off Raynaud's.

Last week, while visiting friends in Singapore, I was told how common it is here and how the acupuncturists have to be trained in China in order to practice, so I thought I'd go in and see one for my knee & shoulder pain. The woman did a normal treatment. But then when my shoulder pain wasn't improved, she said she'd do a different technique, which is inserting the needle (without the guides), pulling it out & then rubbing deeply. She did this a few times with no changes. The last time though she hit the ulnar nerve starting at the shoulder. Pain radiated down from my elbow to my fingers, like when your funny bone has been hit. Lo and behold, I have the SAME neuropathy symptoms (tingling, odd sensations, firing when it shouldn't, and reduced sensitivity). I'm so afraid that I'll now have rAynaud's in my hand too.

My question is, how can a needle cause so much damage? Can it? What likely happened when these nerves were hit by the needles? Piercing, laceration, transection, poking? What? And why on earth won't I heal?

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  • Comments / Discussions:

    comment by "ChadD" (acupuncturist)
    on Oct 2013

    This has been covered numerous times on the website previously. Some relevant links are below (and using the search tool is useful). From reading your post it seems like this happened only about a week ago and if there was nerve damage this could take 4-6 weeks to heal at least. There is more information in my previous replies...

    Previous possible nerve damage replies by myself: [-1-] & [-2-]

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    comment by "liteiceberg"
    on Oct 2013

    I certainly don&#39t have the answer as to why you have such lasting symptoms, but I can share with you this much-

    I had a colleague needle the crap out of my hamstring once and she accidentaly whaled on my sciatic nerve. Like pummeled it. The zing lasted a few hours but it&#39s since been completely fine. Nerves are just like anything else, constantly healing. I&#39ve never heard of such a lasting experience. And on a side note, if you have Raynauds, I honestly can&#39t imagine how a needle could create that. While we can puncture organs and major lines of blood trasport, I don&#39t think we can manifest Raynauds, or see how that&#39s even possible.

    Perhaps look into fibromayalgia? Or other conditions that make you more seemingly prone to being sensitive/unable to rebound?

    Sorry to hear about your bad expereinces.

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