[WonkyColon]

There's an acupuncture practitioner here and he says he can help me. I'm thinking about giving it a try, but there's one thing that's holding me back...If he helps me get rid of the gas build-up I have... does that mean that I'm going to fart in front of him? I don't want to do that.

Even if it would mean getting rid of all this pain.Just wondering if anybody's tried it and experienced anything embarrassing.

 

[Kathleen M.]

Usually for a lot of the sessions I've been in I've been alone.They put all the needles in, then they leave while they have the time they need to work usually with dim lights and relaxing music. Then after awhile they come take them out.Acupuncture may also be more cumulative than immediate (so it may take awhile for full effect) and they may give you herbs or a tea or foods to eat/avoid when you go home.I wouldn't expect them to pop one or a few needles in and then you'll fart like a geyser until they take it out.Also, you likely wouldn't be the first, nor the last, person to fart in the treatment room. A lot of people use yoga to get the gas to move and even totally healthy people with normal gas levels will fart with certain yoga positions.

 

[WonkyColon]

"Fart like a geyser"-- priceless! I was totally envisioning that they would stick a few needles in and we'd all hear a loud ttthhhhppppptt!I've made an appointment for tomorrow. I've always kind of viewed acupuncture as a sort of fringe, quacky technnique. But, honestly, I'd do anything at this point to just make the pain stop.

 

[King Of The Small Room]

I had several sessions a few years ago and it was pretty much as described by Kathleen. As she said, after they'd inserted the needles, some (or all, I really can't remember) of which were attached to a mild electric current, I was left alone for the duration of the treatment.I was also given some herbs to take in capsule form at night which were made from the root of the rhubarb plant. These certainly did a job of clearing me out the day after taking them, but left me very errrm.....unstable I think is the word, for the rest of the day, replacing one uncomfortable feeling with another.Overall the treatment did nothing for me, except, like so many other IBS "cures", leave me considerably out of pocket. But hey, if there's something out there which might work, you've got to give it a go haven't you?Good luck!