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Ischialgia

Witness : Zhuang Shuhui

Symptom: lumbago/ischialgia/herniated disk

                                                           Ischialgia---Chinese Medicine and acupuncture treatment

    In the middle of November last year, I started to feel pain in my waist yet I didn’t give it much thought, for I believed it would be well according to previous experience. However, it hurt for one month and got worse. I even found it hard to get out of bed and only walked with the support of the wall in the morning. I also couldn’t sleep flat on my back in the evening but on my side so that I had to change sides every 1-2 hours with both hands, and it even hurts when I wake up. In addition, I felt worse at work so I decided to see a doctor. However, I couldn’t find a proper doctor. I almost went to all departments of orthopedics and neurosurgery in large hospitals, but doctors held different diagnoses on my MRI. The only thing they could confirm was that the third lumbar vertebra was degenerating seriously and had no water and almost had no support function. Moreover, it put pressure on the nerves so that I had ischialgia. I couldn’t stand or walk for a long time with my left leg and had to rest for 5-10 minutes on roadsides. 

     All doctors asked was why my young lumbar vertebra degraded so seriously. Frankly speaking, I wanted to know why. A doctor in the neurosurgical department told me to undergo an operation immediately. I was stunned and worried. I know that not every patient would suffer from sequelae, but I was worried as vertebrae operation could result in backache or paralysis of the lower part of the body. Anyway, an operation involves a certain risk. I wonder why I was being asked to undergo an operation instead of being given conservative treatment when I could still walk. Therefore, I disregarded the idea of undergoing operation and changed to another orthopedic doctor. The new doctor suggested that I use medicine to control my disease. Hence, I lived with paregoric, anti-inflammatory drugs and muscle relaxants for the whole of February. During that period, I even had the illusion that I was OK and without pain as an effect of the paregoric. I then stopped taking drugs in March to see the extent of my pain without certain drugs. The swelling of the inflamed part subsided, but the pain from the nerve compression had no improvement, so I started with rehabilitation. 

    I went to get treatments such as electrotherapy, hot compress and lumbar traction for one hour every day for one and a half months. I knew I recovered slowly. Some said it was not good to rehabilitate very fast, and many said the rehabilitation time might last for over 1 year. But I had to continue bearing with the disease if it didn’t recover. 

    I could not sleep well every day during those 5 months. I usually wake up every 2.5-3 hours because of pain and then did some stretching exercises for 20-30 minutes before sleeping again. Sometimes, I even woke up every hour. That life made me suffer a lot. I couldn’t stand and walk well, let alone sleep and sit without feeling pain. My work was also affected. My willpower and physical strength were used up in the vicious circle due to my inclined trunk, imbalanced muscle effect, ischialgia, lumbar muscle ache, as well as poor sleep in the evenings. One day, I read an article on the Internet about the testimony of Lv Xue-Yao. He mentioned about the disease I have. I often heard that herniated disk and ischialgia were common among the aged, but I was able to relate with Lv more, for his age was similar to mine. I was not one to be easily convinced by an article, so I read all the testimonies of patients with a similar disease, and then asked for a leave to go to Doctor Wen’s clinic, hoping he could help me out of this life of suffering. 

    I was scared during the first acupuncture, but Doctor Wen’s kind diagnosis made me feel confident about it. After I received 4-5 acupuncture therapies, I could sleep for more than 4-5 hours. After the end of the first course of treatment (10 sessions), I could sleep for 6 hours straight. Although I would still feel painf when I got up, it was definitely a lot less than before. At first, I had to lie on an armrest in the MRT and walked slowly. After 15 times of treatment, I could walk faster to take the MRT. Before the treatment, there was too much pain in my waist in 2~3pm and I could only hunch to walk in the evening. Now, I could almost hold my head high while walking. My trunk and support muscles improved a lot. 

    At present, I had finished 2 courses of treatment which reduced 70% of my inconvenience. I was so happy to have such improvement. Those who knew my disease all told me: “You look much better and even lost weight.” I would say happily,“Yes, if I could have been treated by Doctor Wen earlier, I wouldn’t suffer from so much pain and could have gotten better faster. I have lost a lot of time.” The metabolism was better and I had no constipation, and I looked better in spirit with the help of the abdomen acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine is so amazing and convincing. 

    I will continue the treatment as I believe Doctor Wen will help me recover. My body recovering its health is the best evidence. After having such disease at this age, I realized the importance of health. While others are wasting their health, I have realized health is the true wealth. Without it, everything is meaningless. If you suffer from the same disease with me, please give yourself a change to get healthy and live a happy life.