I just started doing acupuncture last week actually. I have muscle and joint pain due to a current ulcerative colitis flare up and I'm really in a bad state right now with body aches so I thought I'd give acupuncture a whirl.

The acupuncturist said it was ok to do while on warfarin, except that he couldn't give me any herbal supplements with the needles because of it messing with INR. Anyway,I did develop a hematoma just above my ankle where one of the needles was placed. I called and asked him if this was normal and he said something about this occurs in like one and a thousand needle insertions. I suspect there's more of a risk of this type of thing because we are on blood thinners. I'm going to go once more to see if it happens again and if it does, I think I'll go to another acupuncturist or give it up all together. I'm not thrilled with the idea of pools of blood under my tissue.

I am thinking about doing accupunture with hopes to conquer cronic fatigue.

Hiya RMB, knowing you,you have check with your Hema before doing the accupuncture but did you check about the hematoma, remember when I had my hematoma, she took me off anticoags for a week so it could heal faster, just a thought.
Take care of yourself.

I asked my regular doc about it and she didn't think it would be a problem. Then I mentioned that I went to an acupuncturist to another doctor I see for my thyroid ( I have WAY too many doctors at the moment) and he looked at me like I was crazy. He was going to run some blood work that required me to have an injection first and he wouldn't even do that because he was concerned that the injection would cause a hematoma. I'm like, dude I got a flu shot and was fine, so what's the deal. It's like you either have these free wheeling do what you want doctors or these really conservative types. I feel like I can't win sometimes.

Anyway, I have an appointment Tuesday with the acupuncturist that I am going to cancel. If I weren't on warfarin, I think I'd go for it, but I think there are too many freaky things with being on warfarin.

I'd like to see if other people on warfarin have had any experience with acupuncture.

I'll check with my Hema(have ANOTHER INR) on this coming thursday...
About what she thinks of accupuncture for us pinbags, thing I visualise, since we are anticoagulated, would it not look like a fountain, with all these red leaks?
Doh, yes we have to laugh at ourselves.
I know I do.

You know it's interesting. I had about eight needles in me and the only place I had an issue is near my ankle. I'm pretty vein-y in my legs and so I think he just hit a vascular area. Everywhere else he put needles, I had no bleeding, bruising, pain, nothing.