I can finally post here as an SVR post treatment.

[susan400]

I have been post TX w/SVR for 7 mon. now.  I still have some muscle aches and bone pain. Most recently, the past 2 months with my shoulder.  Has anybody had post treatment use of acupuncture? I had always thought about it in the past but was worried about the outside possibility of infecting someone.  But, since I'm SVR, I decided to give it a try for my shoulder. I've done 2 treatments so far. I found it to be very relaxing. I really didn't feel the acupuncture needles except for a slight prickly pressure sensation. Nothing at all like a blood draw or a stick with interferon!  The acupuncturist uses sterile technique with fresh needles, cleansing the insertion area prior to inserting the needle and she disposes of them in a Sharpes container, so I don't feel that there is any issue with my doing it.  I am just wondering if any of you had thought about it for help with the post treatment issues.  I was surprised at how completely relaxed I was and it didn't involve any meds.  

[Frank J. Perrotta]

I have used acupuncture twice. The first was after a auto vs bicycle hit and run with me on bicycle. This was a long time ago but I believe it was 3x a week. I had severe back pain and other areas. At first the areas worked on seemed to hurt more after a session but eventually I felt amazing.

I went for post tx to another dr. This was for various body pains as well as chronic fatigue. I forget if it was 3 or 2x a week but there were needles all over the place. After a couple of months we decided it was not helping. Everybody is different and I do hope that acupuncture does help your pain.

Both of my docs did use an electric stimulation machine on the needles which sends a massaging pulse thru the needles into your body. At first it is a little odd feeling, and if the doc is a little off with the needle the pulse may cause that area of your body to jump a little - and you should tell the doc... but as you say it is mostly a relaxing experience even with electricity flowing thru the needles.

[susan400]

She is just using the traditional non=electric needles.  It does relax me so much though, even if the pain does come back.  During the hour that I'm in there, everything in me just feels completely relaxed. And if nothing else, I'm thinking relaxing like that is a good thing. Probably good for stress and for immune system just being able to completely relax like that. Normally, I tend to be very tense, anxious, type of personality.  It's just the way I am wired. Exercise helps, and I have always done that, too. But, with my shoulder hurting I've had to cut way back on my exercise and now, I'm use doing treadmill and/or stationary bike. I was doing tai-chi but, the moving around of my shoulder during the exercises was hurting. But, tai-chi is great for relaxing, too.

[Frank J. Perrotta]

There were many times when I nearly fell asleep during a session. I was also listening to ambient music by Brian Eno which probably helped.

The two times I had a frozen shoulder flare up the only thing that helped was using a TENS unit. I was surprised to find that even the $40 ones you can find on Amazon are very good.