Jump to content
RemedySpot.com

Re: Acupuncture and A

Rate this topic


Guest guest

Recommended Posts

Guest guest

Hi Franca,

When I was at my worst (before u had a myotomy), I tried acupuncture w/ herbal

teas. I can trek you it definitely helped the symptoms, but it wasn't a cure

all. I felt a little better, had less trouble with liquids, but at the end of

the day, I still had trouble eating.

It definitely helped me relax too!

Insurance doesn't normally cover it so it can get expensive. But again, it did

offer a little relief.

Hope this helps!

Leo

>

> Hi, I'm new to the group. Have been dealing with A for 10 years or so. I

wanted to know if anybody has had any success with acupuncture or chinese

medicine (herbs) as opposed to doing the western approach.

>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest guest

Hey, Franca! Welcome.

I didn't manage to make it long enough to try acupuncture, but it was on the

agenda. Prior to the " end " I'd tried a bunch of alternative therapies, so to

speak. I'm with Leo here: each one helped *a little bit.* But then, so did

doing nothing -- the nature of the beast seems to be periodic rather than slow

steady progression. Bad periods followed by better periods, but always with

that downward trend. Final episode last summer, completely and " suddenly " just

shut everything down, and I ended up in emergency, followed by a five day stint

in the cardiac ward.

The problem with ANY of the alternatives is that one is NOT seeing what is

happening to the esophagus: how much it is stretching, drooping and twisting. I

lucked out, really: my primary symptom was regurging -- i.e., I couldn't keep it

down long enough for it to stretch. But that pretty much resulted in

starvation, screwed up electrolytes and dehydration, and those nearly killed me.

Symptom relief is fine, but not very reliable till you get to the big guns:

balloon dilation and Heller/Dor. You didn't say where on the continuum you are.

.. . .

Best wishes.

in WV

> >

> > Hi, I'm new to the group. Have been dealing with A for 10 years or so. I

wanted to know if anybody has had any success with acupuncture or chinese

medicine (herbs) as opposed to doing the western approach.

> >

>

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest guest

wrote:

>

> ... The problem with ANY of the alternatives is that one is NOT seeing

> what is happening to the esophagus: how much it is stretching,

> drooping and twisting. ...

>

I agree. It isn't that none of the alternative can provide any help it

is that often with them there is no way to see what is happening. Not

just why things may not be working as well as one hopes but also why

things seem to get better. Sometimes, but I am not saying always, we

learn to accommodate the problem and/or the esophagus dilates and can

accommodate more food before we notice it is backed up. The result can

be that things are getting worse while feeling like they are getting

better. Good to check with the GI too from time to time if doing

alternative treatments. That said, sometimes a GI is just going to let

you continue, as is, if things don't seem bad and not do the checking

that would suggest you may not want to wait for things to get bad. There

just are not any guarantees with achalasia.

Before I found out I had achalasia, and that was six years before I

decided to have a myotomy without a dilatation first, I could have most

of a meal still in my esophagus quite some time after I ate. If I had a

cold and began to cough hard and repeatedly I would sometime start to

regurgitate while coughing. The food would come up in order, last in

first out. I am tall and my esophagus was not very dilated so food could

just stack up for a while. I was doing well enough that no one knew I

had a problem. I had learned to accommodate even though things were not

good inside. Sometimes things would get bad enough that I would think

about seeing a doctor and then they would get better again. That

happened over and over but the bad was getting worse. I had it checked

and found I had achalasia but didn't do anything about it until finally

six years later it was bad enough that I didn't want to see how bad it

could get. But I had a lot of good times in those years too.

notan

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...