[Case study] One Achilles tendinitis case

One patient, female, in her 40s, suffered bilateral ankle injuries due to long-distance hiking two months ago, and she felt strong pain in the Achilles tendon. Western medicine diagnosed her with Achilles tendinitis. Physical therapy has continued to this day. The Achilles tendon is locally deformed and slightly swollen, and the soreness is very obvious when touched. The patient felt very sore and uncomfortable locally when she walked for a long time.

In terms of the locally affected meridians, they mainly pass through the Foot Shaoyin Kidney Meridian and Foot Taiyang Bladder Meridian. The patient reported that the treatment effect of western medicine was very obvious before. So why hasn’t it turned better after more than two months? From the “pain” in the acute phase to the “sore” in the chronic phase, the problem has not been solved,  although the pain level experienced by the patient has decreased.

Here I want to mention a concept that Western medicine does not have, but is very important to Chinese medicine treatment, which is called excess and deficiency. The patient’s pulse is generally weak, and the Chi pulse is particularly thin and weak. This is a pulse-type with a deficiency of internal energy and insufficient qi and blood. For the treatment of deficiency syndrome, the deficiency must be supplemented first. Otherwise, it is difficult for such patients to obtain substantial improvement. Because Western medicine lacks this concept, it is difficult to deal with such problems. Similarly, if TCM treatment does not consider the factors of deficiency and excess, but uses strong stimulation to treat, the effect will not be good as well.

I used acupuncture treatment with tonifying method plus treatment in the local area. After the first treatment, the patient said that it was significantly improved by more than 60%. After the second treatment, the pain has been released quite well, and the patient did not come again.