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?