At one point he embedded a needle about a quarter inch into her skin on the underside of the palm, and moved it around. The doctor would place a needle on her skin, then tap the top of it. However, in my mother’s case, most of the hurt from the EMG came from the needles.

Sometimes her face twitched from the discomfort. Her eyes would mildly flinch, and sometimes flinched more noticeably. She was lying on her back, eyes closed, while he worked on her arms. I was watching my mother’s face while he applied the shock with a cell-phone-sized device that he’d press a button on for a split second. The doctor had warned her the day before, “It will be unpleasant.” The needles are a little thicker than acupuncture needles, said the doctor.Īn electric shock is always an unpleasant experience, and there will be times that the doctor will increase the voltage.

I sat in on my mother’s EMG test for her suspected pronator teres syndrome. It depends on how sensitive a person is to pain, and in the case of an EMG test, the pain can come from two sources: an electric shock delivered by the doctor, and needle pricks, which can take the form of an embedded needle that the doctor maneuvers around while it’s beneath the skin.