Why do I have shooting pains and lumps on the left side of my head

Personally I would go to your doctor. Developing lumps over your head is not normal and is very unlikely to be related to the acupuncture.

Along those lines, I could be wrong, but from a quick cursory glance at the galter life center I only see that they have one MD and a DO doing “acupuncture”. You should always consult directly with a fully trained and licensed acupuncturist (in most US states this is L.Ac. - licensed acupuncturist). There are tremendous differences in most cases between the training that a fully trained Chinese Medicine professional will have vs. a MD/DO which oddly in many states require no training at all for acupuncture and in others as few as a few hundred hours vs. 4 years of graduate school for licensed acupuncturists.

Also, as far as expectations, generally speaking chronic insomnia with herbs and proper acupuncture would take somewhere in the vicinity of 2 to 7 months to fully resolve and possibly longer in other cases. When it is resolved, barring significant life/lifestyle changes, it will generally stay that way however. So the practitioners implication that you would be fine in a treatment or two is problematic for me.

So I’m thinking you first see a MD and make sure to rule out other internal/external causes of the lumps you are seeing - possibilities include a transmission of warts, some type of allergic reaction, lice or some other type of fungal infection. Again, one small temporary lump from an acupuncture needle is possible - although rare on the scalp vs. other areas where they are more likely such as wrists and ankles, so multiple lumps would lead me towards some type of infection.

After you see your MD I would find a fully trained and licensed acupuncturist in your area who also practices Chinese herbal medicine (not all do) and then give them at least 5-9 treatments. Insomnia, properly treated, will generally do quite well with Chinese Medicine. And, again, properly practiced, acupuncture should actually be a very enjoyable, relaxing experience with no real side effects.