Searching for Pain Relief? A Personal Insight on Alternative Therapies
In this special edition blog, Denise Roberts, PIM’s beloved Executive Patient Coordinator shares a recent personal experience she had with two Alternative Medicine therapies that left her feeling so much relief, she wanted to let you all know about it! Denise takes such amazing care of our patients, we were so glad to hear this story!
As many of you may know, Denise used to work here in our office in Wayne. Family took her to Pittsburgh where lives now and continues to work for PIM remotely. While her experience was in Pittsburgh and most of our patients live locally, within or just outside of Philadelphia, we do have two amazing acupuncture center that we highly recommend below!
Denise’s story:
I went for acupuncture with Amy Green at Pittsburgh Acupuncture & Massageworks.
Amy is friends with the ladies from West Philly Community Acupuncture which is where I used to go when I lived in Philadelphia. This was my first private acupuncture session. She spent 90 minutes with me putting together a treatment plan to help my right scapula pain. She added in a complimentary brief massage and cupping before starting acupuncture to increase circulation where I was having pain. She felt I would benefit most from electroacupuncture or e-stim. It was a little intimidating at first, but she used electronic pulses to make my muscles "jump". I got the idea that the overall goal is to increase blood flow / nutrients to the injured area. She thinks there is very little blood flow where I am having pain.
Since the session, this constant pain (that I would have previously rated at a 7 out of 10) is either non-existent or at about 80% less of what it was when I do feel it. Amy recommended that I come back once a week for 4-6 weeks and then as needed after that. I am going to follow through with this plan since it is clearly working for me. I have been trying to find a way to relieve this pain for months now and I'm so happy to finally find something that works!
Amy mentioned that she only cups for 10 minutes and that should avoid leaving marks, but mentioned that areas with reduced blood flow can have dark marks even after 10 minutes. I found it very interesting that I did have dark red marks right where my pain is the worst. My entire back had cups, but the places where I don't have any pain, don't have marks at all.
Give it a try! Community acupuncture is a great way to try it out if it’s your first time.
Local Acupuncture Clinics that we love:
West Philly Community Acupuncture, Philadelphia
PIM wants to hear from you! Do you have an experience with an alternative therapy such as acupuncture or cupping? Do you find this article helpful? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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