I am a London Acupuncturist, I am currently treating a gentleman aged 69 who has been diagnosed with Peripheral Neuropathy. He presents with pain in the ischial tuberosity in the right buttock with pain going down the right leg and a burning sensation in the right foot, at this point there is nothing unusual, however, he insists that it only happens every other day, so he refers to a "good day" and a "bad day". He has had this problem for around 10 years, he has seen a number of Neurologists in London, who are all a little puzzled (as am I) we have all suggested that subconciously he is doing something compensatory after a bad day; it could be how he sits, or how he stands to alleviate the problem. He takes 50mg of amitryptiline, which helps for a while, but he does not take this regularly.
It would appear idiopathic, he does not have diabetes, chemotherapy, none of the usual causes, all the tests have shown nothing out of the ordinary, MRI shows nothing (admittedly MRN would perhaps show a nerve entrapment), blood test have proved nothing, no B12 deficiency, and his immune system appears to be normal.
I have treated him 5 times and I have elicited some reaction, he reports that I have made the bad days worse and the goods days better. I have adhered to what we call a "point prescription" but I did stop the electro acupuncture after the second visit.
He did mention that this problem started about 10 years ago and he thinks that it coincided with an inguinal hernia operation !! No one seems to have picked up on this, Anyway, my thought process has led me to think that perhaps the pudendal nerve could be implicated. Before I go down this road, where I would be using needles in the perineum (a point called Ren 1 in Chinese Medicine) I wanted an opinion as to whether you think my thought process is flawed in anyway.
Many thanks
Andrew Colombini BSc. (Hons) TCM MBAcC MAcSCA
On palpation I found what feels like fusion at T5/T6 and at L4/L5. I have concentrated on manipulating the T3, T7 and L2, 3, 4, 5 I have used electro acupuncture.