Expert: Tamsen Staniford, L.Ac. - 9/17/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello,
I had my first Acupuncture treatment yesterday. After about 15 minutes,the pins on the top of my foot were hurting. It took about 10 minutes for the practioner to hear me calling out to her and come in to remove them.
It has been almost 24 hrs since the treatment and the pain (hot and cold sensation, pins and needles, mild stinging) is now radiating up my leg.
Can you give me some information about this please.
Thank you.


ANSWER: Hello, I found this question in the question pool and I would like to help you find a good answer.  
First and foremost I encourage you to contact the acupuncturist and tell them exactly what happened, and mention how it felt to have them not hear you for 10 minutes.  Clearing the air with them will make you feel better in general, and make the practitioner more accountable for their lack of attention.  Plus you'll have the best answer to what exactly is happening.
There are number of sensations associated with acupuncture, some are normal and harmless while others are common but less desirable.  There are a few rare ones that you would want to seek medical attention for.  Normal and harmless sensations include a sensation of movement at and around the acu-point, sensations of heat or cold, tingling, itching, and pressure/heaviness.  Common but problematic sensations include burning and stinging.  This happens when a small blood vessel or nerve is hit by the needle.  In this case the needle simply needs to be taken out and reinserted or sometimes the sensation will just go away.  Make sure to let your practitioner know if you feel burning or stinging.  While these don't indicate anything serious, they are not desirable and feel just plain irritating.  On rare occasions (and almost always when acupuncture is performed by a poorly educated health professional incorporating acupuncture into their western medical practice) an organ or large nerve is punctured.  It is actually very difficult for a properly trained acupuncturist to puncture an organ, but it has happened.  Report shortness of breath or difficulty breathing right away.  Nerve damage starts with a traveling electric jolting sensation upon needle insertion and continues with burning electric zings.
Your description of symptoms match those of mild damage to either a nerve or connective tissue.  Both take a while to heal up, depending on the damage.  If it persists more than a few weeks or gets worse, seek medical attention to check out the severity of the problem.  Otherwise, it should heal up on it's own just fine.
It's unfortunate you had this experience with your first treatment, hopefully your next experience with a different practitioner will be smooth and comfortable :)

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your full explanation. it has been a few weeks now since that first treatment and the weird sensations in my foot and leg have remained. I have a constant mild pain near the big toe, I get hot and cold sensations at different times and it feels like there is a rubber band wrapped around my calf. When I contacted the practioner, she stated that she always leaves the room and lets her patients just relax. And then she added that since the room is at the very end of the hallway, it is hard to hear if someone calls out. The first time she left, she had the door closed, I asked her to please leave it opened when she left the room 2nd time. I told her it would be a good idea to invest in an intercom like the ones used in a nursery so she can hear her patients.
She instructed me to put ice packs on the area and she gave me some natural cream (like biofreeze) to apply. Neither of which helped.
I had the acupuncture treatments to try to bring relief to pain from Fibromyalgia, arthritis in  my neck and the resulting headaches. Now, I have to deal with a pain at the other end of my body to add to my stress!!
The practioner said, it is not a normal reaction and it is the first time one of her patients had this.
Is this common?


Answer
No, it's not common at all.  Give the antinflammatory cream a few more weeks to work, and get checked by an MD if you are concerned.  
I'm glad you were able to talk to the practitioner about the situation; hopefully you can work together to resolve this new problem.