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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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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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good job.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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Well Gary, people say good job. But the sad truth is, my good job is someone else's bad job. It's rediculess that the women in the previous paragraph had to hobble around like that for all those years thinking she has nerve pain. Its just a few trigger points. Her herniated disc has healed long ago. What gets me is that all these highly educated people of all the various professions that you can think of, can't tell the difference between muscle pain and nerve pain? It takes me all but a few seconds to determine. And the very few that do know about trigger point muscle pain, the so called experts, in the various professions, teach and use such unnecessarily complicated, inefficient, expensive, and often times brutal methods for their procedures. After 30 years I know. I have worked with all those various professions at one time or another. I know the types of patients/clients they see, and I know the results they get. I know the kind of clients I'm seeing, and I know the results I get. Now I'm not an expert on pain, but when I think about it, I kinda am? Even though I find it kind of hard to believe, I guess I am? Not because I have some great overall understanding of the subject. It's just because I know trigger points inside and out. After thirty years of seriously trying to eliminate them, I can now find them and get rid of them fast. When you consider the fact that the vast majority of pain on the planet ( 85% ) is trigger point pain. I have to say I'm an expert. I don't know much about the other kinds of pain though. Whatever that 15% is. But that's outside the scope of my license anyway. And hopefully those people are getting the care they need from someone besides a massage therapist. But the truth is, there are a lot of people suffering unnecessarily. I mean a lot. I've been talking about it this entire thread. A recent client that I worked on had a minor kink between her shoulders that was of course a couple trigger points. I got rid of her kink quickly. Then she asked me if I can do anything for scoliosis pain? Her daughter has severe scoliosis and frequently complains of back pain. I said yes I can. Now do I know that for sure.....? NO. Do I know that pretty sure....? YES. I have worked on clients that had really bad scoliosis. Almost shocking to see. But when I ask them if they hurt. They say no. And I have worked on people with totally perfect looking backs that are crippled with pain. So all these different pathologies, like arthritis, one hip higher then the other, not enough curve here, sciatica, frozen shoulder, carpal tunnel, this and that, pinched nerve, and all the rest, mean nothing to me. I palpate, I find trigger points, and I eliminate them. And if I'm able to do that. Then 95% of the time, whatever pain the person is complaining about, goes away. Even if they have had if for years. Now I love working in a spa. I get to work with awesome loving caring people, great facilities, like $50,000.00 water massage rooms and so on. But often times I'm asked by my clients. How come you ain't working in a Chiropractic clinic, Physical therapy clinic, or Medical clinic??? My answer is always the same. Chiropractors won't hire me because they believe I can do what I say. Medical docs won't hire me because they don't believe I can do what I say. And Physical therapy clinics won't hire me because of a combination of both reasons. Lol. Anyway, my good job is someone else's bad job.
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Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
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Gordon, I have had back pain for a LOT of years. But for the last few months I've had new, almost unrelenting pain in the right side of my pelvis. I've tried everything I could think of - and that's a lot of things! I had xrays taken this week because I wanted to know what was going on. Turns out my pelvis is fractured!! And I have at least one broken rib. My chiropractor (went to her for acupuncture) says I am stubborn and have a high pain tolerance! I fell on my butt in January but can't imagine how that broke me. Now begins the investigation into what is going on...
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Have you considered that the fall called a hairline fracture and the DC's :snap" finished the job? With respect, Therese, I would never go to a chiropractor for such a condition unless xrays (MRI better) are taken and read by medical doctors before a chiro is allowed to touch me. They are "qualified" to xray, but how competently?
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I did wonder about that, but of course I had no idea what was going on. I thought it was SI joint stuff related to previous injuries (oh the joys of so many bad injuries!). To her credit, after one attempt at adjustments she said we needed to switch to acupuncture. I have a plan to see a doctor ASAP who is a specialist in what I have going on.
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Why not trigger point therapy instead.
IMO, acupuncture is a weak second cousin to skilled TP therapy. Acupuncture is supposed to stick pretty closely to the charts they are taught. TP artists, such as Gordon (and I, to a lesser, more primitive degree, of course) seek the pain wherever it appears. Any injury to a muscle-- whether it be from a hard bump or fall, from hyperextension, to overuse-- will result in trigger points in either that group of muscles or in one or more of its antagonists.
Attacking the trigger points skillfully allows the injured muscle(s) to heal naturally. Trigger points aren't likely to go away on their own; they're a mechanical breakdown, a roadblock on the freeway between CNS and muscle, and when the lines of communication are compromised, a cry of pain results whenever the muscle is ordered to work, and cannot fulfill its duty. But as you and I, and millions of others know, a trigger pointed muscle can hurt like hell even when it is resting in a sling, for when nutrient flow into the contractured tissue is insufficient to sustain even limited activity, this too will result in pain.
Now, I've never experienced acupuncture, and I don't plan to look for a practitioner-- why would I, when I know for a fact that a thumb or fingertip can do an even better job than a needle.
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Wow..! Therese, sounds like a total bummer. Uhm...All I can say is....if the bones have mended. Then any left over pain would probably be trigger point.
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Bones break, so do structures like the sarcoplasmic recticulum of a muscle cell. That's what causes a trigger point.
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Here is a link to my YouTube videos. I will try to add more as time goes by.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC1nuuoTkJ4xqSulGQYJd7Ng
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A trigger pointed muscle is a shortend weekend muscle. As a result, other muscles have to compensate, and in time develope trigger points themselves. Also, a trigger point can cause dysfunction in the skin( Dermatome ), other muscles( myotome ), bones( sclerotome ) and internal organ ( forgot what kind of tome?) that is inervated by the same spinal segment that governs the trigger point. The effects and symptoms of a trigger point can be wide spread and often times confusing( not only pain ).
Gordon J. Wallis said:Bones break, so do structures like the sarcoplasmic recticulum of a muscle cell. That's what causes a trigger point.
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Hey Gordon! Based on what the xray looks like, the fracture has not healed at all. It's gapped open. The question to answer now is why is it not healed? And why did it happen, given that I didn't have a violent trauma? I can tell you that I have a LOT of trigger points as a result of having this fracture for so long! It has definitely caused a lot of problems. I have good people helping me with the soft tissue work.
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Therese, remember when you got kicked by your horse a while back. Could that possibly have done it?
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