Hello. I have a patient who has been diagnosed with neuropathy. She is experiencing pain, numbness and burning mainly in her left foot (dorsal aspect) in her 3 middle toes. It also is present in the heel. She has some of the same symptoms on the right side but much less. When she lays down at night, the condition worsens. The symptoms are fixed and not moving / radiating. The right foot is noticeably redder and hotter. The skin has a splotchy appearance. It looks to me like she has devloped Erythromelalgia. I would like to ask if anyone has experience with treating this? I have some ideas but it is my first time treating anything like it and am trying to be cautious of agravating it further. She was seeing an acupuncturist previously and had some successs with managing pain but now has come to me with the worsening of the condition. My biggest concern is pushing this deeper. I am treating li/gb heat and blood stagnation. First treatment, I needled lv 8 , lv 3, gb 37 sp 3,, sp 6 st 36 , ht 7 and gb 20.
Her pain was greatly reduced by the time she left the clinic but flared again in a day.Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. I will update this post later with the next treatment. Thank you!
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comment by "Ted_Happytrigge"
on Aug 2013
Hey Victoria.
As the pain is mainly on left foot, needle LI 3 and 4 for the pain on her right foot.
For the heel pain PC 6 and 8 on right side.
For the redness and swelling St 44 on her left foot. GB 31 on her right leg, deep needling and slowly pull out the needle twoards the skin.
Retain needles for at least 1 hour.
All the best Schon
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comment by "Vduenes1"
on Aug 2013
Hi Schon,
many thanks for your response- I have 1 question. Did you mean liver 3&4 on the right food to help with the pain on the left foot or did you mean Large intestine (LI) 3&4 needled on the right arm? Your method is new to me and I am quite curious. She does handle needling directly but I don't care for causing undo pain and irritation directly to the area if I don't have to so i like your thought process.If you could elaborate some, I would greatly appreciate it.
an afterthought - are you referring to the four gates treatment?
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comment by "Ted_Happytrigge"
on Aug 2013
You said the pain was on the middle toes which mostly refers to ST channel. St and large intestine creates Yang Ming. So by using the LI channel u can treat the St channel. As well fot relates to hand according to Taiji correspondence and by using the opposite you create stronger dynamics. LI 3 and 4 disperses heat and wind as well. LI relates as well to Liver (if redness appears on Liv channel) Yang ming - Jue yin.
PC relates to kidney (heel pain) according to the anatomical laws and chinese clock neighbours. PC 8 relates to KI 1 and PC6 is great for heel pain.
No four gates, as i would never use any local needling.
Good luck Schon
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comment by "gwilliams"
on Aug 2013
Hello Victoria,
I have successfully treated a couple of patients with the same symptoms for the foot pain. The diagnosis for each person and underlying conditions was different (one peripheral neuropathy from Lv Fire, the other Psoriac Arthritis from Heat in the Blood with Sp deficiency), I treated the root cause of each person's main and secondary patterns with acupuncture and herbs. For the foot pain I used Lv2, St44 plus the other points at the web of each toes (Befeng), Li4/Lv3 (4 gates) plus 2-3 points on the bottom of the feet (ashi points). I also used Zheng Gui Shui lotion to promote healing. The feet were pain free directly after treatment but returned. The affects of the treatment lasted longer after each weekly session. In both cases the pain was gone by the 8th treament.
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