scoliosis, lumbar fusion, nerve condution testing

June 7, 2009

Hello,

I've been treating this 55 yo old male since the middle of March.? He first came

in with a chief complaint of lower back pain (constant, dull achey, heat and

pressure help, L2-S1 ish area) and leg pain (burning along hip them moving to

medial side of left leg coming and going several times a day).? He also has left

knee pain that is occuring constantly which he describes as a deep arthritis

pain in the joint.? He was diagnosed with scoliosis in his 30's.? He felt like

his gait or balance was off sometimes when he walks, especially that his right

foot feels like its slacking or dragging.? He recieved acupuncture previoiusly

with a different practitioner in a different city and it only helped him

minimallly.? His CF (5 element) is Fire.? His tongue is normal size and shape

with some scallops, and is colored slightly bluish purple in the middle and

average pink everywhere else.? It is moist with a thin white coat and the coat

is turning slighty yellow towards the rear, it has no cracks.? His pulse usually

feels pushy or excessive on both sides in upper and middle jiao and weaker in

lower jiao.? He does not respond to local distal type treatments.? I have been

treating his CF (Fire) and been doing a lot of Dr. Tan points (both 123 and

global balance) He had some cortisone injections which once helped and second

time did not. Since beginning treatment with me he had greatly improved.? His

low back pain was gone, his left leg pain was gone and his knee pain was gone

after about the 7th visit.? His only complaint at that time was that he was

getting sharp painful muscle spasms in his calfs at night that would keep him

up, and even though he was in no pain his gait was still off. Then he went to

the doctor for a recheck, brain scan and bone scan normal.? MRI showed severe

cervical and lumbar issue and doctor recommended surgery to fuse 10 different

levels.? He is going to have the surgery sometime in August.? While at that

doctor they did a nerve conduction test.? That was on 5/1/09.? Since they

preformed the nerve cond

uction test, all of his pains have come back (low back, leg, and knee pain) all

showing up the same way they showed up previously, and we can not seem to get

rid of them now.? I did clear AE afterwards and have begun treating him

similarly to how I did in the beginning and nothing seems to be working now.? He

said to me " that test has undone all the hard work we did " ? Has anyone

experienced this type of thing occur after a nerve conduction test??I've seen

him 4 times since then and really no change.? Any thoughts or ideas about this??

I'm feeling myself getting frustrated and I know he is too.?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Beth

Beth Grubb

Licensed Acupuncturist

Certified Animal Acupuncturist

410-591-2644

beth

www.bethgrubb.com

June 8, 2009

Beth,

I was doing these tests on patients in a clinic. I can say that their purpose

is to challenge or cause trauma and then assess for functioning. I saw several

patients that had to stop the test in progress due to intense pain. This is not

that much better then the old tests.

Michael W. Bowser, DC, LAc

taialumni ; Chinese Medicine

sg1532

Sun, 7 Jun 2009 14:39:10 -0400