Back Pain 2
The other day an old patient came back to tell me to deal with her other problem. She apparently overstrained her back while fishing for a couple of days out in the BC interior. She didn't want to come and see me in the beginning because she thought it would go away by itself.
It seemed to have improved somewhat but the pain and discomfort was still there, sometimes good sometimes bad. This was about for 2 weeks already, when one evening it became so painful she decided she had to come to get treatment. When I did the inspection on her back I realized that this is a more rare type of lower back pain.
Most back issues occurring as a result of injury and/or strain are related to the back muscles running on both sides of the spine. However her pain was not a muscle issue. The pain was focused on the sacral-iliac joint all the way down on the pelvis. There was pain during palpation. Essentially, this is a form of arthritis.
I performed acupuncture and told her to go home and use warm/hot compress on the area whenever she has time, for this will speed up recovery. Only then did she tell me she's been using ice. I told her this will only lead a simple problem to become a chronic issue.
A week later I followed-up to see how it was. The pain was absent for a few days after acupuncture but slowly came back so she used hot compress as instructed and now the problem is no longer there anymore. I advised her to continue the compress for a period of time both as care and to prevent it from reoccurring.
What I've heard from many people who've had acupuncture is the general idea that for pain conditions related to musculoskeletal problems, multiple treatments over a period of time is required. Usually once a week for 4 weeks is the average norm. In my practice that is not really the case. Through proper post-session care of the injured area most people need only to come once or twice to achieve near complete recovery.