Wk 1 TCM rotation Day 2 by Heidi Pang

Today I have observed multiple acupuncture procedures performed by Dr Chen 陈明珠, Director of the TCM department here at TIHTC, and Dr Ho. I arrived at Dr Chen's office in the morning and she had already begun to see her patients along with Dr Wong, a visiting TCM doctor on military duty. Dr Chen started the day with seeing patients for follow up clinic visits. CC of Dr Chen's patient for treatments are mostly joint pain, arthritis and stroke rehabilitation. She would begin with addressing the principal meridians on the head, fingers, elbow, inner thigh, knee, and ankles, then address other meridians according to the CC. Dr Chen's treatment procedure in general is 20 minute utilizing both electroacupuncture and color light therapy. Electroacupunture is particularly good for treating pain and increases the effectiveness of regular acupuncture according to some studies. The addition of light therapy will increase the cutaneous temperature, leading to better circulation. I also had the chance to discuss about OMM technique versus TCM with the visiting doctor. He explained his belief on motor point acupuncture/acupressure and its efficacy on treating musculoskeletal dysfunction. Similar to osteopaths, he also believes that visceral and musculoskeletal dysfuction are inter-related. Motor points are areas of the body that represents a tight, palpable knot of over-strained muscle. They are distinct spots where the nerve enters the belly of the muscle, therefore when stimulated, will lead to a muscular response. Any injury can trigger the dysfunction between the communication of the muscle and the CNS and acupuncture/acupressure of the motor point will "reset" the dynsfunctional unit. He tried the technique on me since I have chronic shoulder pain. He started with the motor points of the brachioradialis, then biceps and lastly triceps. He believes that one of the MCC of shoulder pain is over-straining of the biceps caused by modern lifestyles (ex: being at the computer 24/7) and thus the arm muscles will tend to pull the shoulder forward. Stimulating the nerve endings directly for each muscle definitely was not a pleasant experience. After addressing my left shoulder (THE DYSFUNCTION SIDEEEE), he also addressed the muscles of my right arm. He stated that our body is like a cylinder, and we have to address the "non-dysfuncitonal" side after the treatment to balance everything and restore the body back to a “normal" state. Although the treatment process wasn't the most pleasant, my shoulder definitely felt more relaxed and had increased ROM. I found this technique rather similar to FPR except FPR is more of an indirect method that addresses the myofascial release with an activating force (torsion or compression) for stimulation instead of directly stimulating the nerve endings.

In the afternoon I was assigned with Dr Ho 何彦頣 at clinic 1. Dr Ho was extremely busy and had 40+ patients for the afternoon including 10+ patients for acupuncture treatment. Majority of Dr Ho's patients who received treatments are people with prior cerebrovascular diseases. We saw a 33 y/o female patient with complete lesion of the spinal cord at C5-C7, and T1-T6. She was there for her 5th treatment of 8 meridian points. We also saw a almost 9 y/o male patient with infantile cerebral palsy and synovitis/tendonitis. Unlike Dr Chen, Dr Ho's treatments are usually 30 minutes without the use of electricity. I did not have a chance to ask him why he opt out on using electroacupuncture but I suspect that it is due to his choice of a longer treatment time instead. There were also several female patients with CC of irregular menstruation or menopause, which I found rather common within the TCM patient demographics. Let's see if I will get a chance to ask him about his treatment choices tomorrow...