Pain management for abdominal pain

A colleague asked me to have a chat with a client of hers today. This gentleman has suffered abdominal pain for quite a while. Due to ulcerative colitis his whole colon was taken out and instead a pouch was made to connect small intestine and anus. That was the operation a few years ago. He has been in pain whenever he eats. He is under the monitor of the hospital and there is nothing wrong with inside and the pouch.

Stopping dependency of pain killers due to effectiveness of treatment

When I saw him, he was in pain 4/10 even just after taking painkillers. His pain was in the lower abdomen towards the anus area. He wanted to know whether his pain could be managed in some way so he won’t need to have another surgery. Due to such a short notice (no appointment till the next one), I offered him a quick pain relief way to see if he would response – battlefield acupuncture. This is a method of needling five auricular points. He was surprised to find himself pain-free only after the first needle in. Those five needles were all I did today, and his pain was 0/10 from 4/10 in one minute! Not a bad start. An appointment was made for next week. More detailed treatment plan will be made with a long-term pain relief target.

Sourced & written by Lin Du