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A typical experience

I had a new client the other day for an 80 minute massage. I asked him if there is anything that he wanted me to know.  He told me that he suffers from a herniated disc that he has had for a few years. He has constant low back and right hip pain that at times radiates down the back of his leg to his knee. He told me that he has had two injections in his low back and has to stay on anit- inflamtory medication.  Anything to avoid surgery. The pain is always there. I asked him if he ever saw a chiropractor for his pain.  He said yes.  But the adjustments hurt his hip so bad that he could not continiue.  So here is a guy that thinks he is on the verge of surgery. I knew that there was a very strong probubllity that was not the case. The vast majority of pain people experience is nocioceptive pain( soft tissue- muscle, tendon, ligament, facia).  MDs and Chiropractors see pain as neuropathic pain( nerve pain).  With that asumption they give the wrong treatments and therapies.  Now there is no denying that at times injections and surgery is needed. Not denying that.   But most of the time - NOT.  70% to 85% of all pain comes directly from trigger points.  Anyway I showed my client a testimonial from a client that I was able to help out of a very painful condition that she had delt with for a couple of years. I showed him that testimonial because all pain has a psychological eliment too it. I wanted him to start thinking maybe he is not on the edge of surgery.  I palpated his entire back upper torso, both hips, and right leg. I found a very painful spot on his right L5 erectors.  Another very painful spot on his right greater trochantor.  A painful spot in the middle part of his lower right hamstrings.  And also a tender spot on the right spinous of L3.  I knew that if Iwas able to eliminate all those painful palaptory spots that I would most likely eliminate his pain problem.  Because a healthy body had no painful spots even with deep massage.  Ive been hunting and eliminateing trigger points for thirty years now.  He walked out of the massage room pain free. He was pain free for the first time in years. All those other professional people misdiagnosed him because they assume neuropathic pain over nocioceptive pain.  I assume the other way around.  I'm a Massage Therapist.  

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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 10, 2016 at 9:53pm
http://www.triggerpoints.net/forearm-hand-pain Check out that link and look what trigger points can do. Cut the nerves all you want.. The trigger point stuff is still there causing pain. In those websites above, they don't mention trigger points.. Last time I looked anyway. They use the term adhesions. But, reguardless, there therapy works.
Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 14, 2016 at 11:41pm
Another new client came in recently for an 80 minute massage. After talking with her for a minute. I found out that she was in a lot of pain. And has been sense teenagerhood and after being in several accidents. She has gone through the usual gauntlet of providers with no real relief. She told me she is very depressed and is on medication for it. Then she starts telling me where she hurts the most. Her right hip and lower back. And the front of her right shoulder. She can't even hold a cup of water in her right hand for more then a minute before she has to set it down. Ok, as she is telling me all this.. I'm thinking... Well, I can give her a really good spa massage. Or should we do a trigger point session? Because that's what it sounds like she needs? I always have to hesitate because when it's trigger point work it's medical. And when it's medical. Both client and therapist have to communicate. At least the way I do it.. And although that's very theraputic, it's not very relaxing( However if the pain is gone after the session, it's relaxing ). And I am working in a spa, and most clients come in expecting relaxation with no to little talking... A break from their busy stressful days, or life or whatever. But this women was really hurting as well as depressed and in pain.. I asked her the magic question. Have you ever heard of trigger points? She said no. No surprise to me anymore when I hear that. Ok well long story short. I told her about trigger points.. Let her watch a 17 second video clip of me releasing a trigger point on a client. She said if you can get me out of this pain, go for it. I explained to her that one session is not going to cure her... But we will find out for sure if this therapy will work for you.. She said she understood that... Well her right hip pain turned out to be a really boil like trigger point in her Tensor Facia Latae. She flinched big time when I touched it. She was told her hip hurts because of bursitis? I don't even think there is such a thing anymore. She also had a very tender spot on her PSIS on the same side. She had very painful QL points on the Illiac crest on both sides.. Paraspinal pain points both sides at L5 and L4. Also really painful points on the first two segments of her Sacrum. She had a very tender spinous at T1 on the left side. Both Temporal muscles had noticeable trigger points. She also had a few tender points between both shoulders... She had pain points on her strernum.. And a couple really boil like pain points in her right Pectoralis muscles. Anyway, all those pain points vanished. It took me 45 minutes to find them and deactivate them all. The rest of the time was spent doing a firm relaxing massage, the pressure was what I would call medium firm.. However I avoided any deeper and specific work.. She was smiling and relaxed looking after the session.. On repalpation of her hip and chest, those trigger points were gone. I did not re-palpate the other tender points. Only problem is she works a lot, and is not able to come in for follow up sessions.. Near the end of summer, she may have more time.. But it's trigger points as usual. All the years she has been seeing people for her pain. No one mentioned the word trigger point. Seems weird to me, sense I've been trying to and eliminating them for 30 years now. " WHAT IS SIMPLE, IS SIMPLY SEEN....AND WHAT IS SIMPLE, IS RARELY UNDERSTOOD." - From a Kung-Fu TV show in the 70s. ( one of my favorite shows back then ). I'm going to add an attachment that fits well into this thread.. However, it would not fit into our massage license without a medical person actually being present during the therapy.. It clearly points out just how unknown trigger points really are, as well as how much pain, stress and suffering they can cause.. I could have named this thread, THE UNKNOWN FACTOR.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 15, 2016 at 9:51pm
Just some comments, food for thought. A young women came in not too long ago. She told me that she has a lot of pinched nerves. I asked her how she knew that? She told me her chiropractor told her. I recently watched a video of a chiropractor explaining that the most common cause of low back pain are pinched nerves do to disc compression. That is just not true. I have not seen that. Either have the worlds leading pain researchers that I have quoted in various attachments on this thread. However, the term pinched nerve seems to have caught on, and indeed a very high percentage of pain is given that diagnosis , a pinched nerve. Now there are people that suffer from pinched nerves.. I was one. A bulging herniated disc in my lumbar spine. I couldn't walk for three months.. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't lay down, I could barely sit up. It was like fire burning into my groin and down my leg. After three months I could hobble some. Long story, but it took me 14 months to heal. Now muscle pain can drop you too your knees as well.. And it can radiate like nerve pain. And it might be hard to tell the difference if you are in it. But I can now because I've experienced both. When I had the nerve pain, people, chiropractors, massage therapists kept telling me, let me work on you.... But no way was I going to let that happen. The mire touching on my lumbar vertabrae was painful and very nauseating. Plus I could not even lay down in any position over one minute. Now muscle pain can sometimes maybe feel similar. But the fact is, nerve pain is rare compared to muscle pain.. I've also been bed ridden because of muscle pain... The difference I noticed is that with debilitating muscle pain, I could always find a position of comfort, as long as I did not move.. With the neve pain, there was no position of comfort, only very bad or F in bad ! The truth is 80% of all pain is trigger point pain.. And trigger points are involved in almost all pain syndromes.. So pinched nerves from compressed discs, although it happens, is not the most common reason for back pain.. Trigger points are. And that fact remains a big secret.. The young lady above with the pinched nerves had five or six active trigger points that deactivated quickly.. After the massage her comment was.. G, I feel taller, and it doesn't hurt any more.. It's like my bones are loose.. Now there is no way I can touch anyone and make pinched nerves from a compressed discs just vanish so quickly. The only way that would happen is if the nerve is irritated from contracted muscles, like in Piriformis syndrome. And then I think it would still take some time for the nerve to fully recover? I might be wrong on that.. I'm only rambling in here because I'm so tired of hearing this pinched nerve diagnosis coming from professional health care providers that should know better. Also I want to make it clear that there are some very good chiropractors out there. I've learned a lot from chiropractic.. I study a lot of their material. And pinched nerves happen, but trigger points happen way way way triple times 10 more. In the attachment below I will show some excerpts from a book written by a chiropractor. I read his book, and just could not believe what I was reading. This guy gave no credence what so ever to muscle pain, nore did I read the word trigger point in his entire book. Because I can post only one attachment at a time, that's what I will do.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 15, 2016 at 9:57pm
A continuation from the attachment above.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 15, 2016 at 9:58pm
A continuation of the attachment above.. I'd never wanna go to this guy if I was hurting.. To put it nicely. This guy knows not reality.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 15, 2016 at 10:00pm
The TRUTH( reality )in the attachment below.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 20, 2016 at 11:24pm
I recently had a new client that came in for a 50 minute massage. When I asked her what she needed from the massage, she told me just to relax. I asked her if she had any aches and pains that I could help her with.. She said that she has sciatica, but she does not want me to work on her sciatica. She has been dealing with it for years. She just wants to relax. I'm thinking to myself, I seriously doubt that she really has sciatica.. More likely it's trigger points in the Glute muscles and or in her legs. She told me her sciatica is in both legs and of course hips, and instructed me to work gently in those areas.. Other therapists have hurt her. As I have mentioned previously in this thread, I have found real sciatica to be extremely rare compared to fake sciatica, which is Trigger points. Anyway, feeling frustraighted that she won't let me help her, I began my spa massage routine. It's a good massage, but not specific enough to rid someone of fake sciatica. During the course of the massage I could tell it was active trigger point activity..No doubt what so ever. It was obvious. Hamstrings, lateral leg, and of course the gluteus. Anyways after the massage I began to tell her that she doesn't really have sciatica. She immediately cut me off and said yes I do. I work with physical therapists.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 21, 2016 at 10:08pm
Another client came in with long term sciatica. I'm talking years. I think she told me two years, can't remember. But of course it was fake sciatica as usual. Of course she has been to all the usual players. I think that's the most misdiagnosed pain syndrome on the planet.. At least in my experience it is. I almost think now I could run a busy practice just on sciatica alone. The problem is people that think they have sciatica most often run to medical doctors and chiropractors.. Get scanned and anylized. The practioners find arthritis or a narrowing or bulging of discs and think that's the cause. Not even checking for trigger points. Hence the person with the pain thinks they have a serious problem, not just a painful one. And go on with these endless therapies that render little if any help. Or get painful injections that are expensive and render no long term relief. They can also get therapy that actually perpetuates the trigger point pain. I feel as though I know top secret information or something.. And even when I tell people about it. It still remains top secret? The client today was surprised when her sciatic pain vanished. I don't really have a web page presence, or a Facebook. I'm on here all the time..but.. I should get a little more internet media savvy and just advertise my self as specializing in sciatica elimination. I remember the surprise on one clients face when she asked me if I could do anything for sciatica.. And I said, yea, I can cure it. Of course if they really had sciatica, I couldn't . But that would be so infrequent.... The one out of 20 times that happened , I could score points by reffering them to an Orthopedist or something. Hmm,, Just thinking out loud. Anyway, I will post several attachments that make up what really is most sciatica on the planet. You've seem em before. But everything I say in here is the same thing over and over and over again. I could have called this thread, "THE BROKEN RECORED". But then, people not old enough, might not know what that means?
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 21, 2016 at 10:08pm
NUMBER 2
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 21, 2016 at 10:09pm
NUMBER 3
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 21, 2016 at 10:09pm
NUMBER 4
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on May 21, 2016 at 10:10pm
NUMBER 5
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