During this week, I had the pleasure of treating our Flatiron physical therapist Simone Floyd for a case of ankle and back pain. Usually joint and muscle pain usually has a physical cause related to traumatic injury of the muscle or connective tissue; however, this case was rather mysterious.
At the beginning of this week on Monday, our physical therapist was slipping into her shoe, which caused a minor cut on the skin of her left side Achilles’ tendon. 2 days later, she noticed a lot of itching in the ankle in conjunction with severe back pain, which radiated throughout her whole torso front to back. She received cupping that day, which alleviated the pain for a few minutes. By 7 PM that night, she ended up falling asleep because of sheer exhaustion due to the intensity of the pain.
I saw her on Thursday of the same week, by then the ankle was swollen and red. She walked could barely walk and could hardly extend her foot. She was still having residual back pain. Both our physical therapist and I suspected the cut had become infected. We both mentioned it would be best for her to take antibiotics.
In the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to get her some relief while the prescription was being filled. In acute conditions where there is redness and inflammation the first step is treating the jing-well point on the affected channel. In our case, this happened to be the urinary bladder channel which passes through the lumber spine, down the posterior leg, achilles, lateral malleolus and ends at the tip of the little toe.
Treating the jing-well point requires a strong bleeding technique to reduce heat and inflammation. This occurred at approximately 7:50 AM on Thursday. Immediately after this technique, there was an improvement in pain in the ankle and low back.
Around 2pm I gave her an acupuncture treatment to further help with circulation in the back and ankle. This involved examining the entire course of the urinary bladder pathway and treating any obstructions that may hinder or delay healing. Treatment started with sliding cupping along her entire back followed by acupuncture treatment to her traps, the sacral fascia, the back of the knee, and calf. Acupuncture point UB-17 has a special function of treating the blood and may be used for any pathology related to blood. In this case there was a lot of heat indicated by the redness and swelling in the skin and joint, so this point was added.
In Ling Shu Chapter, there is a general prescription based on what is presenting. It states, “When there is heat, needle quickly”. This was applied at the border of the normal and red skin, to enhance micro-circulation and enhance healing. The needles remained for approximately 10 minutes. We then proceeded with a supine treatment involving a classical point pair LI 11, and SP 10. This point pair is often used for dermatological conditions involving itching and redness. The needles were manipulated strongly and removed quickly following the principle of Ling Shu chapter 10 to needle quickly when there is heat.
This is how Simone’s ankle looked after the acupuncture treatment. There is a noticeable difference in the redness and swelling post treatment.
This morning approximately 24 hours after first seeing her, yesterday when she could barely walk and was in debilitating pain, I received a text and a picture from her stating that the condition had completely cleared up.
This case demonstrates the effectiveness of acupuncture when applied in acute cases and I’m thankful as an acupuncturist in our Flatiron clinic, that I was able to help my colleague Simone. If you have a new injury or chronic injury that has an acute exacerbation why wait? Book an appointment at Flatiron’s leading integrative physical medicine clinic as soon as possible. Our doctors and therapists have many years of experience and would love to see you.
