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“I can’t believe it – I have no pain!”

Her face was wet with tears – tears that told of the years she had suffered, every day, with relentless, chronic pain. While medical practitioners had offered her diagnosis, the various names they gave her for what was happening came without relief of the pain that was her constant companion. She searched, as many who suffer and endure chronic diseases do, for understanding – and relief. She was frequently in a position where she found herself knowing more about her condition, and how it worked, than many of the professionals she went to for help. As relentless as the pain was, so her determination became: there had to be some solution, some meaning, some relief – but where?

I had met her a few days before, and after a brief conversation, I inquired if she suffered with pain. She acknowledged she did, that it was chronic and complex, and that she experienced no relief. Pain inhibited her sleep and like rust, ate away at her happiness.

I told her that I work as a specialist in pain relief, and asked if she would allow me to try to help, and she agreed – though possibly with some skepticism that relief was possible, based on her other experiences.

We did two acupuncture treatments, and during each one, she told me she felt several things – warmth flowing to the area that had been so acutely painful, and that it was almost like the pain was melting. When she got off the table after the second treatment, she began to cry with tears of relief. While not entirely pain free everywhere, the place where she had experienced the most intense pain was now completely relieved. Now she had hope again…

A hidden casualty of chronic pain is hope. When people suffer with chronic pain, when their efforts to find pain relief are frustrated repeatedly, the sense of hope of and for pain relief can evaporate and be displaced with depression, hopelessness, and despair.

It’s often the case that people come to me for acupuncture or acupressure after they have tried many other things to address their pain. Most people are pleasantly surprised to find that they experience relief relatively quickly, and

If you or someone you know has been suffering with acute or chronic pain; if hope has been disappearing – I urge you to consider calling and making an appointment – life is too short to lose any of it to pain unnecessarily!