DR. XU

Acupuncture is such a clean business. Fairly swift, bloodless, clean. This is my second experience with acupuncture and it was very different from the first with Dr. Xu, pronounced (Shu).


From the picture you may not be able to see all the needles, beginning with one  in each ankle, then at the back of the knees.


The needles are about four inches long. After Dr. Xu inserts them, he twists certain ones  to penetrate a bit deeper and then attaches an electrode to those. It feels like they are continually twisting, and it looks like he used ten needles on my back and buttocks.


This little machine supplies the electrical charge.


The treatment was for neck pain. I have an identified damaged disk in my neck. Dr. Xu claims that regular treatments will retard aging of the bone and help healing of the damaged disk. Hmmm! I can see 12 needles on my back and shoulders.
Then he had me lie on my back and inserted needles in my face, hands, wrists, elbows, and stomach. No electrodes this time.  The whole process took an hour. We left with an expensive compound he made for pain. The process immediately took away my  head ache I’ve had for days, and I was able to move my neck gently back and forth without much pain.

With a noticeable improvement, I’m still exercising a lot of care in my movements. Avoiding any lifting or strain of any kind. I feel an all over soreness around my back and shoulders.  I was surprised at this treatment because I’ve had acupuncture once before, for the same disk injury  and it was very different.
Dr. Suzanne used needles about seven inches long, much of it handle. She inserted them in very specific order then tapped them and wiggled them a bit. After 10 minutes, it hadn’t helped the pain.
 She tried a second set. It didn’t help either. Then a third course. I remember the third one specifically because she inserted between my toes and into my ear. That didn’t work either. She apologized for her failure.

By evening, I was pain free and could do everything I was able to do before I visited her. The next day, I called her back to tell her the treatment worked. Kind of makes me think there is the all over, catch-all treatment, with electrical stimulation and the “old” way, specific, educated choice. If I ever use an acupuncturist again, I’ll choose  someone old and ancient.