I have recently seen a patient who had pain in her foot radiating up from her big toe. It was severe enough make walking very uncomfortable and to prevent her from standing on the foot for long periods of time. She had suffered with the pain for many months and nothing she had tried had helped relieve it. As she described the pain it seemed to me to follow the path of the Liver meridian. This patient had also had an operation some years ago on her foot and a heavy scar crossed the pathway between Liver 2 and Liver 3 acupuncture points, about an inch from the base of the big toe. I thought the scar might be blocking the qi so I needled the two ends of the scar and the sides of the scar where the Liver pathway intersected it. At the same time I needled Liver1,2 and 3 all with evens technique. I wanted to move the qi as I thought the pain was the result of stagnation - things were simply not moving.



I repeated this treatment weekly over the course of five weeks and the results were good. The patient reported a lessening of the pain each week until there was only a residual ache in the area of the first metatarso-phalangeal joint - the base of the big toe. She reported being able to go walking the in Peaks and to be able to stand on the foot for long periods without pain.



Sometimes pain seems to stem from the qi not flowing in the meridian and inserting needles along the pathway - in the local area and distally- gets the qi moving and the result is a reduction of pain and an improvement in mobility. I have found that this type of treatment can help pain in the shoulder and in the elbow.