Disclaimer: The cases are for illustration purpose only. Everyone's response will differ from one another according to different situations. The readers should not practice self-diagnosis and self-medication on the basis of these cases.
◎postherpetic neuralgia
On 1 Mar. 2017, a 64-year-old lady came for treatment of right hypochondriac pain lasting for 6 months. She had shingles (herpes zoster) on 3 Sept. 2016, and had been hospitalized for 10 days. She already tried acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, vitamin supplements, and fresh aloe vera juice for topical application before, but with no lasting effect. The presenting right hypochondriac stabbing pain extends from under right breast to the upper back, occurring 1-2 times a day (around 18:00-19:00), with pain score 5/10. The range of motion of right shoulder was also limited. In terms of past history, she had allergic rhinitis, lymphoma surgery (year 2005 and year 2010), and diabetes (on supplement, no medication).
On the second treatment, which was three days later, the patient said during 18:00-19:00 on the day of the first treatment, she felt comfortable. On the second day of first treatment, the condition improved by roughly 1/3. She then continued acupuncture treatments and the condition kept improving since then. In the end, until 1 Jun. 2017, this lady received a total of 10 acupuncture treatments, and her pain relieved a lot, remaining only a little bit, with increase of range of motion of right shoulder and better sleep. Over the three months of treatments, the lady still took some Chinese medicine herbs (prescribed by another Chinese medicine practitioner) and vitamins. The lady was quite satisfied with the result, because the acupuncture treatments had helped her with much improvement of quality of life.
Postherpetic neuralgia is a nasty and difficult disease, especially for a lady in this case (over 60 yo, with ulcer on the wound before, over 6 months of time after onset, with diabetes, and weak constitution after surgery). It is great that acupuncture treatments can help this lady so much. It is even greater that acupuncture can help even more in the acute stage of shingles (herpes zoster). The sooner the patient receives acupuncture treatments for shingles, the better the result would be. It is a pity that not many people know the benefit of acupuncture treatments for shingles (herpes zoster).
