ICU Nurse Finds Relief from Years of Pain Through Sports Acupuncture

When it came to living with chronic pain, Amanda had lost hope.

Her journey with chronic pain began in March of 1993 after experiencing an injury to her ankle. Throughout the years, Amanda underwent several surgeries with mild intermittent pain, but within the last two to three years it became severe and constant. She had several rounds of steroid shots, never being pain-free for more than a few months at a time.

Additionally, in 2021, Amanda tore a tendon in her shoulder that required surgery to her rotator cuff. Eight months after surgery, Amanda’s shoulder and neck were still in pain due to the constant state of spasm.

Multiple pain points

Amanda was now experiencing chronic, extensive pain in multiple areas of her body. She was unable to sleep through the night and perform daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, bathing and more. Amanda also had to take a medical leave of absence from her job as a cardiac intensive care unit nurse. “Chronic pain really takes a toll on a person, especially their mental well-being,” she said.

“I would try to imagine what life would be like in 10, 20, 30, or 40 more years of chronic ankle and shoulder pain. And I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to know. There were some very dark days during those eight months,” Amanda recalled.

Amanda’s pain levels even progressed to the point of meeting with an Orthopedic Surgeon to request amputation. Luckily, her care team said no and provided her with better treatment options.

Amanda’s sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Patricia Kolowich, referred her to physical therapist Derek Chan at Henry Ford’s Center for Athletic Medicine and also referred her to Sports Acupuncturist, Dr. Tom Betts.

The first appointment

On June 13, 2023, Amanda began to experience hope she hadn’t felt in a long time. She began Sports Acupuncture treatment.

Sports Acupuncture is a combination of techniques including Traditional Chinese acupuncture, dry needling, motor point acupuncture and more. Dr. Betts utilized many motor points in Amanda’s treatments. He describes motor points as, “The neuromuscular junction where the motor nerve attaches to the muscle from the brain. By targeting these points with tiny needles and/or needles with electrical stimulation, this technique is like a ‘software update’ or a ‘computer reboot’ for the inhibited, overactive or compensating muscles causing pain in your body.”

Overall, acupuncture helps increase activities of daily living by reducing pain and inflammation while increasing range of motion.

“After the first treatment for my shoulder pain, he told me, ‘Okay, stand up and shake things out. Let me know what you think.’ And I was hopeful,” Amanda recollected, as she could already tell a difference in how her shoulder felt after just one session.

A light at the end of the tunnel

Amanda began physical therapy and sports acupuncture twice a week for four months. With the changes she was seeing by coupling both together, she once again felt there was a light at the end of the tunnel. The sports acupuncture reduced the pain which allowed her to perform the strengthening exercises at physical therapy. Amanda’s care team worked hand-in-hand to help her get strong enough to not only get back to her basic activities of daily living, but return to work.

She was so amazed and grateful for the relief she felt with her shoulder pain that she asked Dr. Betts to see if he could do anything for the old, chronic ankle pain.

From never to believer

October 17th, 2023 marked the date for the first time in three decades that Amanda thought it’d be possible to live a life without pain. Dr. Betts began sports acupuncture treatments on Amanda’s ankle. She said, “I can’t even begin to describe the hope I felt that day. I was elated.”

Dr. Betts said, “I expect an immediate and obvious change in the first or first few treatments to confirm we are on the right track and continuing treatment is worthwhile. Sometimes in chronic or stubborn pain situations, it can take several treatments to see results. In most conditions it can take several treatments to experience permanent or long-lasting relief. But Amanda felt she noticed a difference right away. Experiences like that are why I do what I do.”

Amanda said, “At the end of that treatment, I told Dr. Betts that my ankle felt so much better, and I might cry. I was speechless. There was less pain, less tightness, better activation of muscles and it felt like I could walk without a limp for the first time in years.”

When Amanda was driving home that day after her first treatment to her ankle, she recalls exclaiming out loud, "Thank you Jesus!"

A new hope

Since beginning sports acupuncture treatments for her ankle, Amanda can work a 12-hour shift as a nurse and no longer dreads the quarter mile walk to the car afterward. She can be on her feet all day without excessive swelling in her foot, ankle and leg, and she’s noticing her muscles are getting stronger and stronger.

Amanda keeps to a schedule of two sports acupuncture sessions per week for a mix of pains in her neck, shoulder, upper back and lower leg.

“I can picture a life without chronic pain. I don’t dread what the future may look like. I can picture growing older peacefully and loving life, and that in itself is priceless. I Am Henry."