The Reason You're Hurting
A Book in Progress...
- Introduction -
This book is written for all of us who have pain that is either continuous or recurring. It's for bad backs that won't leave us alone, and for heel, leg, knee, shoulder, neck, back, foot or hip pain that just won't stop nagging at us.
Advertisements for pain relief disturb me. On one TV ad a woman playing tennis strikes a ball then grabs her elbow in pain. She takes a couple of pills and announces after another swing at the ball, "I don't fell the pain." Think about it. Does the absence of pain stop the damage done to the elbow simply because she doesn't "feel the pain?" We need to take personal responsibility for our own health. Should we mask the problem or find a way to solve the problem?
For most of us, the pain we feel is from soft tissue injuries. These injuries can be recent, or accumulated over the years. Most of the information we get for dealing with these problems hasn't changed in fifty years. With all our medical miracles, the treatment of injuries remains the same: RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. This is good medical advice, but there is more to healing injuries. As a Licensed Massage Therapist since 1996, I have worked with all types of injuries. One of the lessons I have learned is don't give up. You don't have to "learn to live with it."
One of my clients, a doctor, came into my office with pain in the palms of his hands and the bottom of his feet. His doctor told him he had neuralgia (pain along the distribution of sensory nerves) and he was told to get used to it, and "…it will only get worse." He asked if I could help. I told him what I tell all my clients, "If it's muscular, probably." One week after the first session he returned, held out his hands and said, "It's working!" After three sessions, the pain was gone.
A woman in her late sixties, with low back pain and sciatica (nerve pain down the leg), was referred to me by her doctor. She had been suffering from this pain for over thirty years. After an assessment, I discovered her hips were not even (often diagnosed as one leg shorter than the other). I checked for specific tightness in the muscles of the area and determined the key was her psoas muscle. Over a period of several weeks of working and stretching the muscles, her pain disappeared. She stays pain free by using self-massage and stretching. As a side note to this story, she told me she was having trouble getting out of her chair to a standing position- this indicates a lack of muscle. I suggested she find a personal fitness trainer to help her get back into shape. She is doing great, as her letter indicates.
Δ Continue reading more of the book in Healing Stories
Δ Learn the Basic Technical Terms
Monthly Updates
Keep checking this site and my book in progress, The Reason You're Hurting. This website will include monthly updates as I write. I'm hoping for publication and distribution in 2007.
A Book in Progress... Self-healing through evaluation, massage and stretching.