A female patient, 50 years old, has been dealing with severe back pain her whole life. From time to time her back would freeze up. Only the strongest prescription pain killer could help with the pain. Few days before her vacation to a sunny beach down south, she started having the back pain again. A trip to her usually physiotherapist only relieved some of the her pain. When I saw her, she was heavily drugged with muscle relaxers and Tylenol three according to her. She could walk and stand but still felt the pain in the background. An advantage of dealing with severe back pain for so many years is that she acquired a great tolerance of pain.
I palpated the back of her hands to check for tender points and found one ouchy point between the 2nd and 3rd metacarpal bones on both hands. So I quickly inserted one needle on Master Tung's point SanChaYi (A.02) of each hand. Interestingly, she felt a pinch in her lower back, where her pain was, as I inserted the needle in her hands. After a few minutes, she was able to feel her back loosen up and pain decreasing. She told me that the pain relief was comparable to one of her stronger pain killer that she saved for emergency situations.
She went on the flight the next day and had a pain free vacation. Pain didn't come back until she was back in town 5 days later.