Dry Needling
 

Because I think this deserves it's own thread:

Dry Needling - I have in the past two weeks had this done twice, it is extremely painful. I had it done in the pec minor muscle both times. However, it was a great diagnostic. The day of the dry needling I felt terrible, the next day I felt bad, the following day decent, and then that night I went to bed and woke up with in the morning with my arms above my head and my hands were NOT asleep. That hasn't happened in 10 years! Then that day I felt pretty good, I thought maybe I should go do something fantastic, like paint the ceiling, but my muscles are too weak for that, also I did still have some symptoms, but it was a major improvement. Then the next day symptoms came back, by the day after that, everything was back to prior to the dry needling.

The second time the PT also did the traps and either side of the lower neck between the C5 to C7 area.

9 days to surgery, I go to Denver in 6 days, I am extremely excited!!

Who else has had dry needling??? I wonder if I had started this 10 years ago where I would be today. What were your experiences like???

My teen had this done multiple times. It was life changing. It was done multiple times over a series of weeks in the neck and traps slowly working from the upper layers of muscles to the lower level of muscles that still had trigger points. My teen had already had TOS surgery but needed exercises to fix the winged scapula and stabilize the shoulders that come partly out of joint upon moving. PT without the needing prior to TOS surgery was actually making the TOS symptoms worse. As the posture improved and the shoulders moved back in place the numbness and loss of blood flow worsened. However, through months of PT which included massage, the knots and incredibly tight muscles never relaxed.

After TOS surgery the joint issues still had to be resolved. The weakened muscles still had to be strengthened. Massage and exercises still weren't doing the trick. The PT learned to perform dry needling and after about a month to six weeks of dry needling once a week with an additional PT and massage session each week, the muscles started to stay relaxed as the muscles learned the new pattern of behavior.

My teen said the pain wasn't all that bad. One time there was a really bad after response. The pain was horrible for days to the point where breathing was difficult, but what happened was that muscles loosened and the body shifted. This was enough to cause all kinds of temporary pain that resolved in a few days. That was the breakthrough session. After that the sessions of dry needling were quicker, easier, and had fewer trigger points to work on.

The physical therapist said that not everyone has such dramatic results so quickly, but for my teen, dry needling was the key. It reset the muscles and allowed the PT to start really making an impact. Since the TOS surgery and the PT which should take about a year, my teen now has proper posture. The clicking and grinding and popping of the shoulder and scapula has all but stopped. The shoulder is starting to stay in the joint better as the other muscles gain strength to hold it in place.

We have seen people in PT that have claimed that dry needling was terribly painful, but that really wasn't my teen's experience.

A while back, I went to a therapist who does only dry needling, nothing else -extremely intense sessions. An hour of non-stop needling left me feeling overall unwell with a flare-up of symptoms which took a week to get over after each session. I think the overload of needling caused a lot of inflammation. However, I think dry needling could be very beneficial if combined with other modalities and done judiciously, not overdone. The needling definitely loosened seized up traps and helped with some of the face pain I have. I'm on the fence about surgery, looking for yet another PT, and hoping I'll find someone with dry needling experience. A paper on point: http://www.spinalmanipulation.org/db...ndrome%20(2000)

"Dry needling" is basically trigger pt acupuncture. They call it dry needling because an md or pt can do it. it is only legal in certain states. In CA it is not legal. if you live in a state that is not legal look for an acupuncturist who does trigger pt acu instead of meridians. these are usually western as opposed to Easternacupuncturists. it helps me for a couple of days but thats about it.

I had dry needling a few times. It helped for a little while after each session, but not long-term.

Hello,

Could you tell me what kind of exercises your teen did for the rehab? I have scapula winging with rounded shoulders and a bit of forward head posture. I live in Belgium and I don't think they are that qualified here so that's why I'm asking you.

I have scalene problems and I started doing trigger point acupuncture but he's not doing my scalenes. I thought maybe it was dangerous doing it there. I will ask him next week. He doesn't want to give me exercises yet (ie stretching or exercises).
He's quite good taking away some pain but not the main cause of pain. I can't afford paying another PT for the exercises as for 3 years I have done PT for the referred pain I have (tennis elbow, carpal tunnel and shoulder bursitis,...) Now I know it was my scalenes but can't afford to pay for more PT.
Thanks
I hope I could heal... it's been 3 years (I'm 27) and I can't stand not doing any sports.

Our sticky threads have a lot of helpful info-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread125577.html
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

Expert/advanced PT is very important, you will need a higher level of treatment than the usual therapy client.
I had very good results with a very highly skilled chiropractor.