photos by Eve Meinhardt/Paraglide Cpl. Fidelis Oketch, Warrior Transition Battalion, receives percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation acupuncture at Womack Army Medical Center June 12 to address chronic pain he suffers after being wounded in improvised explosive device attacks in Iraq.

Aichmophobia. Belonephobia. Trypanophobia. The fear of needles is so prevalent that there is more than one term to identify the phobia. For Soldiers experiencing chronic pain, complex regional pain syndrome or even hypersensitivity, overcoming an aversion to needles may be a worthwhile endeavor.

Lt. Col. Dean Hommer, a physical medicine and rehabilitation physician at Womack Army Medical Center, is also an acupuncturist. He has helped many patients alleviate and even eliminate their pain through acupuncture.

In December 2007, Maj. Christine Nelson-Chung, executive officer, Troop Command, suffered a stress fracture that required her to have her left hip pinned. She said she did really well after the surgery until the middle of the third week, when she began experiencing a hot and itching sensation in her left foot and it ballooned to three times its original size. When her doctor asked her if she was open to alternative types of treatment for her condition, she said yes. He recommended acupuncture.

“When I went to see Doctor Hommer, my leg was bright red from the knee down and so swollen that you couldn’t see the tendons or the veins in my foot,” said Nelson-Chung. “He put three pins in my head and started spinning them. I initially didn’t feel anything, but then started watching the color change in my foot. An hour and a half later, there was a significant difference in the look and feel of my foot. It was almost back to normal.”

She credits acupuncture with her successful recovery.

“If it hadn’t been for Doctor Hommer, I can imagine that I would have a long and unsuccessfully recovery, possibly resulting in a medical discharge from the Army,” said Nelson-Chung.

Cpl. Fidelis Oketch, Warrior Transition Battalion, is one of Hommer’s current patients. He said he experiences chronic pain from injuries suffered from seven improvised explosive attacks in Iraq. He has been receiving acupuncture as a treatment for his pain every week at WAMC for three months. He was receiving the treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for two months prior to that.

	Lt. Col. Dean Hommer, right, a doctor at Womack Army Medical Center, performs scalp acupuncture on Spc. Daniel Ebensteiner, Warrior Transition Battalion, June 12 to treat the hypersensitivity of a scar on Ebensteiner's left ankle from an airborne injury suffered in 2008.

After a session with Hommer June 12, Oketch said his pain level decreased by 50 percent.
“The pain causes the energy to drain out of me,” he said. “This gives me a little bit of relief. I’m glad to have it on a Friday so I can enjoy the weekend a little more. I call the decreased pain ‘freedom.’”

Hommer treats Oketch with percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, where the acupuncture needles deliver small electrical pulses to the nerves just below the surface of the skin. Other patients, like Spc. Daniel Ebensteiner, WTB, receive scalp acupuncture.

Ebensteiner had the air taken from his parachute during a jump and was to close to the ground with no time to pull his reserve in an attempt to pull away from the jumper below him. Unable to control or steer his parachute, he landed on a truck, shattering his left ankle. After numerous surgeries, Ebensteiner was left with a hypersensitive scar that he was unable to touch without waves of pain. To wear any type of boot or shoe, he had to a big pad that protected his foot.
The scar troubled Ebensteiner for almost a year, getting progressively more sensitive with each surgery. He said he tried pain medications, steroid injections, Lidoderm patches and other methods without success. He knew another Soldier that had success with acupuncture, so when his primary care manager recommended he try it, Ebensteiner scheduled an appointment with Hommer.

“I heard good things about acupuncture from a friend, but I was still very skeptical. Now I can say from personal experience that it works,” said Ebensteiner.

When he met with Hommer June 12, Ebensteiner showed him that after the initial treatment a week prior, he was now able to touch the scar and wear his boots without wrapping gauze around his foot to provide additional protection. He said he was amazed that after one treatment, his sensitivity was gone.

Hommer said hearing a patient say their pain is gone is one of the most rewarding parts of his job.

“I am able to see immediate results through what I’m doing,” said Hommer. “Sometimes I’ll have a patient come in who’s been experiencing the same pain for four years. They come in and immediately feel better. It’s great to know acupuncture is able to change and improve their quality of life.”

Nelson-Chung, Oketch and Ebensteiner all said you could barely feel the acupuncture needles, which are extremely thin and aren’t placed in much further than the surface of the skin. Ebensteiner said the needles going in his scalp were no worse than a bug bite.

“There is no downside to acupuncture,” said Hommer. “There are no side-effects and it is low cost.”

He said that while acupuncture cannot eliminate pain caused by an anatomical problem, it can alleviate it and eliminate the extra pain caused by the injury, like hypersensitivity.

“I’ve been performing acupuncture for over a year and, as far as I know, nobody has had a recurrence of hypersensitivity once they have been treated,” Hommer said.