Do the Du

One of the tough things about this blog is admitting that I've made mistakes. It's embarrassing, but I'm hoping you can learn from those mistakes.

Suppose you have a patient laying facedown on your table awaiting the miracle of acupuncture for their back pain. Suppose they have a lot of extra tissue. I'm not necessarily talking adipose; sometimes laying flat just pushes muscle/fat/skin backwards. 

Q: What's the first thing you do before placing a needle?

A: Find the spine/Du channel

Q: Where is their spine? How do you find it? 

A: PALPATE! Palpate all you like until you're satisfied. Get in there with your fingers and feel! Unless, of course, palpation causes pain. My advice then is to guestimate from mastoid process to mastoid process, from acromion to acromion and from ASIS to ASIS to the center. You can always scootch their pants down and look for the intergluteal cleft, too.

• Do not trust the point that their posterior hairline makes. 
• Do not trust their spinal fusion scar. 
• Do not trust the Yin/Yang tattoo between their shoulder blades. 
• Do not trust the tag on their underwear. 

Trust your fingers. That is all.