溫氏現代針灸 溫崇凱中醫診所-耳針眼針頭皮針舌針權威-跟診日誌

Acupuncture Helping to Overcome Sciatic Pain and Numbness Caused by Herniated Lumbar Intervertebral Disc (HIVD)

In medical institutions, often it's the daughters of the patients who accompany them during the doctor visit. If it is the sons accompanying them, they often just show up occasionally. There was a female elderly patient. She walked very slowly and hobbled slightly into the clinic. She stated that her son had brought her here from Singapore. Her son, who stood by her side, added that he had taken his mother to be treated in hospitals in Singapore. All the western doctors had said that, as she suffered from severe HIVD, she must undergo surgery. He found it unbearable to see his mother, who was over 70 years old, enduring such hardship, so he made a trip to Taiwan specifically to seek help from the Chinese medicine doctor. This patient's son had worked in a financial institution in Singapore and had a lot of connections. He had sought help from all the prestigious doctors he could find. Just as he was at his wit's end, his client in Singapore told him that he had come to Dr. Wen's clinic during his business trip because he had a chronic illness. After a few acupuncture treatments, he had recovered from the illness. So, his client suggested that he try and bring his mother here. Without hesitation, he bought the tickets for his mother to come to Taiwan.

The intervertebral discs consist of the annulus fibrosus, soft bone, and the nucleus pulposus. The herniation of these discs might put pressure on the nerves such as the sciatic nerve, femoral nerve, obturator nerve, and the cauda equina nerve. The most typical case is the nucleus pulposus putting pressure on the sciatic nerve, which stems from the spinal roots of L4, L5 and S1 and S3 and is distributed over the pelvis, hip, thighs and the area above the feet. Because the pressure points around the waist usually fall on the L4-L5 vertebrae, most lumbar injuries originate from L4-L5. The pain starts in the hip and extends through the thighs to the feet. There were a lot of patients in my master’s clinics who had lower back ailments; common ones included pressed intervertebral discs, spondylolisthesis, and even fractured vertebral arches, all of which my master had treated before. My master had obtained the licenses for both Chinese and Western medicines. Based on his experience, if the hospital recommended surgery, it meant the case was a trickier one. However, my master did not think that this patient's condition was so severe as to require surgery. He thought that there was a chance of recovery for her. After the needles had been inserted, the patient's lower back pain was alleviated and there was improvement in terms of the soreness and numbness across both her legs and soles. Therefore, she went back to her hotel and rested afterwards. She also made appointments with the receptionist for follow-up visits in the following one week, during which she would come here for treatment every day.

The next day when her son took her to the clinic, I could tell from the way she walked that she was in a much better condition. Her son said that he had been taken aback on seeing his mother that morning. Originally his mother had not been able to crouch and needed to hold the side of the bed to get up every morning. She used to bend her lower back and move her steps very slowly. It broke his heart to see her moving so carefully and slowly, but that morning, he saw his mother getting out of her bed very swiftly. There were not any separated and slow movements as she had made in the past! When she used the toilet, she even crouched and got up. He thought it was incredible that the acupuncture treatment had produced such great results so quickly!

The patient was also very pleased. When the needles were retained in her body after the insertion, she was demonstrating to other patients how she could crouch down and get up. She was very joyful.

Being in good spirits, this patient started sharing with me her story. She said that her son had very much fulfilled his filial responsibilities. He wanted to take her to travel around the US and Europe, but she had suffered from pains in her lower back and legs and had had difficulties walking, so she had not been able to take a trip. Therefore, she had told her son that she did not want to travel, but her son had not given up and had been determined to find a doctor who could cure her illness. What was more incredible was that she said she had lived in Singapore and had never left her house alone. Wherever she had been, be it nearby or far away, either her son had accompanied her, or he had sent someone over to accompany her. So, although the hotel in which they stayed in Taiwan was very close to the clinic, it was still necessary for her to cross the road, so her son was still worried and even made efforts to inquire as to whether there were any hotels even closer to the clinic. Her son had started planning for the patient to come back regularly for follow-up visits in the future. Therefore, he wanted to find a hotel that was close by, convenient, had local amenities, and could provide three meals every day. In this case, the patient would not need to go out to eat, because she had never gone out and eaten alone!

In Taiwan, a place that was full of 'mummy's boys', it was heart-warming yet a bit unbelievable to see in our generation a 'boy's mum' that was spoiled by the son.

I didn't know if it was the psychological effect imposed on me or something, but seeing patients like this, who were completely confident about the doctor's treatment, I always thought that they would recover from their illness very quickly; however, my master said that, according to his observation, for those who succeeded in fulfilling their filial responsibilities, their family would recover from the illness very quickly. This was just a reference for all the people in the world who are sons and daughters.