Hi, I had my second acupuncture treatment today. The first treatment a week ago I only had 2 needles in my lower back. This morning I had 4 in my lower back & one in my right Piriformis. My back & right hip have been burning intensely all day. What is causing this & what will help it stop. I am on tramadol for pain & it has not helped at all!!
Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.
I’m sorry to hear of your experience, particularly for something that should be easy to treat.
First, are you seeing a fully trained and licensed acupuncturist or some other professional who does “acupuncture”?
I ask, because these types of responses, while not impossible, generally do not happen from fully trained and licensed acupuncturist - nor would an acupuncturist, generally speaking, use so few needles and so direct to your pain (most of the points that help back pain are nowhere near the back.
Acupuncture is very useful for all pain conditions when properly applied and rarely causes any irritation beyond a very small percentage of people and only within their first treatment or two.
If you search our forums you will see many of these types of questions, the general answer is you will be fine within 4-6 weeks in most cases (again assuming you had proper acupuncture). Most of the forum entries were either from people in countries where acupuncture in unregulated or from other medical professionals (physiotherapists, etc.) performing what they think is acupuncture.