last thursday i talked about my basic scheme to reduce pain.  today, i shall discuss what happens when the patient still has pain.

i find that there is a ‘law of diminishing returns’ phenomenon when dealing with pain.  maybe that’s due to my own inexperience in treating pain, i don’t know.  but it usually takes 20% of the work to remove the first 80% of the pain, but takes 80% of work to remove the last 20% of the pain.

if i use the meridian draining technique with the wrist-ankle points and the patient still has pain, there are a couple of things that i do next.

first, i try other point schemes, like Richard Tan’s imaging scheme, i use Master Tong points, i use extra points like yaotongxue, i use empirical points, i use scalp points, i occasionally use eye points, i use ear points.  if all else fails, then the next trick out of the bag is usually cupping.

cupping is a technique where a vacuum is created inside a cup which is affixed to the skin via the vacuum.  the idea is that the stasis that is causing the pain is pulled to the more superficial layers of tissue where it is more easily dispersed.

i use both the glass ‘fire’ cupping as well as the less-elegant cupping with the vacuum pistol tool and plastic cups.  when the cups will be stationary, i use the plastic cups.  for moving cupping i use the glass cups.

moving cupping is used when the area is large or there are many painful points that are close together.  in this technique, a medium of oil is used to lubricate the skin so that the cups may be slid to different areas.  i find that the thin lips on the plastic cups make moving cupping very painful, which is why i use glass cups.

you may have seen pictures of gwyneth paltrow’s cupping marks on her back.  if you haven’t, just google it.

marks like hers aren’t unusual after cupping.  in fact, it is more the norm.  if you receive stationary cupping, you can expect to get round purple bruises.  when you have moving cupping, the marks will be long and purple.  they may look painful but rarely are.  tender is amore appropriate description.  

in any case, the cupping marks will dissipate in a week or so and so will your pain.

thanks.