Dry Needling

It's been quitea few weeks since injuring my elbow and while it looks okay, is functional, and I use it without pushing it too far, the ache is constant.

On my latest visit to the Physiotherapist, she asked me how I was faring. I was honest and confessed the past few days in particular had been hard and I could feel myself slipping into a self induced funk of negativity and woe-is-me attitude. Particularly since watching my girls perform at our Christmas/break up performance night at The Pole Gym.

I was incredibly happy for the girls and they all performed spectacularly, but I will admit that inwardly my bottom lip dropped and I was pouty and frustrated at myself for not being part of it. I started to question if there would be an end to this pain, would I be able to perform again, would I be able to climb, hold myself and do tricks?

The Physio asked me if I had a fear of needles. I replied, "Not really".

She asked if I'd heard of dry needling, I hadn't.

A quick explanation that it was not acupuncture, it was a medically based treatment and that she thought I would gain some benefit from it. I asked what gauge was the needle - I needed perspective. She said, "Small", and I said, "RN, remember?". She said it was a 25 gauge needle. I sighed deeply, "Okay, let's give it a go".

I lay back on the table and extended my right arm out. She told me not to look so I found a spot on the ceiling and stared. I heard a clap and felt the needle slide in, involuntarily I sucked in my breath.

The needle was lifted and moved about my ligament, twisted and piercing it several times until it pierced the area with the most pain, once it was in the right area it rested there for a good minute and surprisingly the pain subsided. Then it was lifted up marginally and moved about to the next area of pain, all the while stabbing, puncturing, and piercing the ligament and surrounding tissue.

The pain was extreme but I held still. I did groan very loudly, blowing out my breath slowly, keeping the muscles in my arm relaxed. I stayed focused on that spot in the ceiling and in my mind I kept repeating "This will make it better, this will make it better, this will make it better". After ten minutes, that felt like so much more, it was over. A great deep tissue massage followed that was very painful but I could feel the muscles fibres releasing and the tension ebbing away.

I now have four weeks where I am solely responsible for rehab'ing at home until I can have physiotherapy again. Bad timing with the holidays and a trip to Sydney causing the delay in treatment. But it will give me a good idea if I need more dry needling and how effective it is for my pain. The Physio did say she could feel a lot of grit in what should be smooth ligament tissue, so my healing hasn't been as good as it could be. Re-traumatising the area and flooding it with blood should help clear this away and promote a positive healing response. I can only try right.

When we looked at my battered, reddened arm after the treatment we both agreed there 'should' be significant bruising from all that was done...

No bruise, NOT EVEN ONE BLOODY MARK! 

I just do not seem to bruise! Maybe I truly am Ninja.