Making the Best of a Prickly Situation

Call me crazy, but I actually enjoy the acupuncturist's needles. I can lie on a treatment table, decorated like an octogenarian's party cake for up to an hour, grooving to the warm, harmonious buzz of a balanced body. And why not? Acupuncture can scare away a migraine, soothe arthritis and calm nerves. The painless needles barely penetrate the skin. And the ancient Chinese system of medicine can do no harm.

So I thought. Not long ago I went for an appointment, this time from an acupuncturist I didn't know. Worse, I'm mortified to say, whose name I got from a stranger. But everything seemed fine: the waiting room was filled with reasonably normal-looking patients and the treatment rooms, while unadorned, were generally clean. Then came the first needle. Bam! It shot into my abdomen, immediately followed by a sharp pain in my side. "Oh, that hurt you because you have problems there," said the acupuncturist. She explained that she performed a special, deep acupuncture, in which needles are inserted nearly two inches. With metal protruding from my stomach, barely clad and worrying about that problem in my side, I was in no position to argue. Bam! Bam! Bam! I was skewered three more times. I was sweating, I was scared. When would this session be over?

None too soon, it turned out. When I got home, my abdomen was swollen, my stomach, hips and lower back aching. I called the acupuncturist, who told me that pain was good, a sure sign that qi, the Eastern word for life force, was at work. When, the next morning I was still hurting, I went to my doctor, who performed a sonogram that showed that my abdomen was filled with fluid. The needles, it turned out, had penetrated the abdominal wall and entered the pelvic cavity. What's more, they had been placed perilously close to the abdominal aorta. If that had been nicked, massive bleeding could have occurred. "She did surgery on you without a license," said my doctor.

What happened to me was unusual, but instructive. With time, my body healed, but not before I reported the acupuncturist to the New York State Office of Professional Discipline . (No one tracks how many complaints about acupuncturists are received nationwide, but they are usually for problems of infection, or practicing without a license.) As horrific as my experience was, it will take months before a hearing is scheduled and the outcome is uncertain. Most states have only broadly written regulations governing acupuncturists, with few specific guidelines. They can't draw blood, write prescriptions or make referrals for x-rays, but otherwise, like doctors, they have lots of leeway in how they choose to practice. The burden is on consumers to sniff out the bad ones. That's made all the more difficult by Westerners' general unfamiliarity with Chinese medicine.

What can you do? Check the situation out. Though a license can't assure complete safety, be certain your acupuncturist has one. Watch to make sure that he or she uses only sterile, disposable needles. Whatever you do, don't make my mistake, and choose an acupuncturist solely on the recommendation of a stranger. Listen to a friend who has been successfully treated over several sessions or get a referral from a doctor. And, if you feel something isn't right, ask the acupuncturist to remove the needles or — yes — you can always remove them yourself. If things still seem strange, get dressed and walk out.