auricular therapy

[shanniesue2]

my chiro has done a couple of auricular therapy treatments on me.  The one he did yesterday was actually painful.  It felt like this really sharp pressure/swelling sort of sensation.  It only hurt on the left side.  My left ear is still tender where he placed one of the needles.  To the point that it was uncomfortable to sleep on my left side last night.  Is this normal???  Especially considering that I'm not noticing much improvement in the condition that he is doing the therapy for (cervical vertebrae--loss of range of motion and pain)?  I've had 3 of the acupuncture treatments in the last week... so I just keep wondering if I should notice a big improvement this early on or if I just need to deal with the ordeal of the treatment a little longer.  Or is he not doing the treatment correctly?  Or is my neck just so out of what that it's going to take longer than normal?

[acupunkjenny]

As an acupuncturist who uses ear points often in treatments, I'm guessing that one of the points your chiro used bruised- even if it's not visible.  I've never heard of any serious damage anyway from auricular therapy, and I wouldn't assume that he or she did anything wrong- there are lots of tiny capillaries in the ear and face and I often have points that bleed a little when I remove needles from those areas.  The soreness is probably gone by now I'd imagine.

Have you considered seeing an actual acupuncturist for regular treatments?  I have a community acupuncture clinic, and depending on where you are you may be able to find one near you.  check out www.pocacoop.com 's LOC page to see if there's one.  The #1 thing that we treat is neck and back pain and the community setting makes the treatments affordable using sliding scale fees of most often 15-40$.  Acupuncture is really effective for these issues.

Wishing you well!

Jenny