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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 Maryshka on
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Makes me wonder if the surgery was needed in the first place prior to TrP work...? First massage post-surgery when massage should have been done pre-surgery... seems clients (patients) find their way to massage due to long-standing pain (necessity)...
Gordon J. Wallis said:Had a new client recently. I asked her what she needed from the massage, and she told me that she was a bit nervous because she never had a massage before. I told her that I have a very high skill set after working almost every day for 30 years. I also told her that my massage was not any better then anyone elses, but when it comes to removing pain, I'm working at a high level now. She told me she has plantar fasciitis in her right foot. And her left knee hurts do to surgery from a long time ago. Her knee won't fully extend and the back of her knee is very painful. She also comented, Not much you can do about that. I told her that there was a very good chance those pains would be gone or greatly diminished after the massage. She looked at me with a very skeptical look. I found several painful trigger points on her body. All the tender spots made her flinch on palpation. A painful spot on the border of her left shoulder blade, left QL, center upper edge of the sacrum, left Glute med., and left piriformis. Those were painful spots on palpation. Her symptomatic pain on the back of her knee came from a very painful trigger point in her hamstrings(see attachment). and a very painful trigger point on the bottom heel of her right foot( calcaneus) was her plantar faciitis pain. She left the spa pain free. She is moving here in a few weeks and will come in for follow up sessions. It was all trigger points. So she is going to be much better in the near future. Its cool to help somebody that does not expect to be helped.
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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Agree totally, Maryshka. Seems that many if not most chiropractors who work with a massage therapist won't allow the MT to touch their patient until after the adjustments. The massage, including TP work, should be done before the DC does his thing-- his work would be so much easier (and less harmful to the patient) if the muscles along the spine are relaxed, and not hurting.
Maryshka said:Makes me wonder if the surgery was needed in the first place prior to TrP work...? First massage post-surgery when massage should have been done pre-surgery... seems clients (patients) find their way to massage due to long-standing pain (necessity)...
Gordon J. Wallis said:Had a new client recently. I asked her what she needed from the massage, and she told me that she was a bit nervous because she never had a massage before. I told her that I have a very high skill set after working almost every day for 30 years. I also told her that my massage was not any better then anyone elses, but when it comes to removing pain, I'm working at a high level now. She told me she has plantar fasciitis in her right foot. And her left knee hurts do to surgery from a long time ago. Her knee won't fully extend and the back of her knee is very painful. She also comented, Not much you can do about that. I told her that there was a very good chance those pains would be gone or greatly diminished after the massage. She looked at me with a very skeptical look. I found several painful trigger points on her body. All the tender spots made her flinch on palpation. A painful spot on the border of her left shoulder blade, left QL, center upper edge of the sacrum, left Glute med., and left piriformis. Those were painful spots on palpation. Her symptomatic pain on the back of her knee came from a very painful trigger point in her hamstrings(see attachment). and a very painful trigger point on the bottom heel of her right foot( calcaneus) was her plantar faciitis pain. She left the spa pain free. She is moving here in a few weeks and will come in for follow up sessions. It was all trigger points. So she is going to be much better in the near future. Its cool to help somebody that does not expect to be helped.
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Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
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Gary, you may be glad to know that at least where I live, the chiro clients get a massage before adjustments. Sometimes it feels like I live in a backwater when it comes to bodywork, but it's nice to know that we can get something right around here!
Gordon, another great success story!
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Here, a couple Dcs are wise enough to do that, but some are even wiser, to know that if the MT takes awaay the pain, the customer might cancel the adjustment. :)
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Ha! Yeah, I hadn't thought about it like that!
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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Her surgery was done over ten years ago. I did not ask her the details of her surgery( no time). I immediately started palpating for trigger points. She very well may have needed the surgery. Having said that. I believe there are a lot of unnecessary surgeries for structural pain problems in this country. Especially for Carpal tunnel.
Also, massage therapists are not taught to deal with carpal tunnel( they themselves have to quit beause of it). Let alone to understand the major role trigger points play in all pain syndromes. Often times the trigger points are the cause. If you've read this entire thread and read the attachments. You can see its just not me saying this.
Maryshka said:Makes me wonder if the surgery was needed in the first place prior to TrP work...? First massage post-surgery when massage should have been done pre-surgery... seems clients (patients) find their way to massage due to long-standing pain (necessity)...
Gordon J. Wallis said:Had a new client recently. I asked her what she needed from the massage, and she told me that she was a bit nervous because she never had a massage before. I told her that I have a very high skill set after working almost every day for 30 years. I also told her that my massage was not any better then anyone elses, but when it comes to removing pain, I'm working at a high level now. She told me she has plantar fasciitis in her right foot. And her left knee hurts do to surgery from a long time ago. Her knee won't fully extend and the back of her knee is very painful. She also comented, Not much you can do about that. I told her that there was a very good chance those pains would be gone or greatly diminished after the massage. She looked at me with a very skeptical look. I found several painful trigger points on her body. All the tender spots made her flinch on palpation. A painful spot on the border of her left shoulder blade, left QL, center upper edge of the sacrum, left Glute med., and left piriformis. Those were painful spots on palpation. Her symptomatic pain on the back of her knee came from a very painful trigger point in her hamstrings(see attachment). and a very painful trigger point on the bottom heel of her right foot( calcaneus) was her plantar faciitis pain. She left the spa pain free. She is moving here in a few weeks and will come in for follow up sessions. It was all trigger points. So she is going to be much better in the near future. Its cool to help somebody that does not expect to be helped.
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There's a LOT of money to be made doing surgeries. Sometimes they are necessary; my client that was just here is a good example - almost 2 years ago she fell and broke the neck of her left femur. Her first surgery was to put a rod in the leg and stabilize it. Then the rod broke, if you can imagine (I won't go into details but it didn't just happen). It was a couple of months before she could get in to see a different surgeon. He took the rod out, put a new one in, replaced her hip joint and tied everything together. That surgery was a year ago yesterday. As her massage/bodywork therapist, it has been both a privilege and a challenge to assist her through this process!
So many surgeries aren't necessary, as you say! People are cut apart, carved on, left with scar tissue (because that makes everything better!), side effects from surgery (anesthesia just by itself is hard for the body to deal with)...It's frustrating!
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I read in a text book that is used in a local massage school that says( forgot the exact wording). If you think you are getting carpal tunnel, go to a medical doctor for proper diagnosis. And it was in bold print. Carpal tunnel is usually trigger points. But its always viewed(by MDs) as nerve pain. I have met people that benifited from the surgery. And I have met a lot that have not. The thing that gets me is.. I can tell within a minute if the person really has carpal tunnel or not. Just with palpation. And if they really did have carpal tunnel, the surgery would work.
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There are a couple of things I believe is wrong with that attachment I posted above. You don't have to stop doing what you are doing. Like quit your job or quit typing. A perfect example of that is my client that cured herself with the electrical massager. Stretching and self care after work. You don't have to quit your job.
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Wow! It was a cool day. By that I mean, I was able to help a couple of people that did not expect to be helped. I will talk about just one particular client. Now I work in a spa. So a lot of times when I bring a client into the room. They are bubbling excited happy. They are going to get an expensive massage( well worth it though) as a birthday present. But this client was not bubbling. She looked like she was not doing good. I asked her what she needed from this massage. She said my back hurts( as she touched her low back hip area). I asked her where she hurts.. She said all over. I said.. Where the most. She said Low back. I asked her if she gets headaches. She said all the time. I asked her if she has a headache now.. She said yes. She had a depressed posture. I told her that I have been doing massage almost every day for 30 years, and that I have a very high skill set when it comes to taking pain out of the body. I let her read one of my testimonials. Now to be honest. I dont know if I can help her or not. But my confidence, and her reading a testimonial, sets up a healing enviornment. After reading the testimonial I then told her about another client that had chronic headaches that I helped in one session. I even explained what I did and why it worked. Now she is looking more positive, judging by her body and eyes. I told her that I could give her a spa massage which she would love, but that it would help her pain problem very little. Or I could focus all my attention on taking pain out of her body. She said take the pain out of my body. She had several trigger points in her hips. And three very tender points on her lateral spinus on the right side. L3, L4,L5(perhaps Multifidus and Rotatores). That was her low back pain. The next set of trigger points was not untill I got to her neck, and they seemed minor( not very painful). Her headaches are mostly felt on the left side of the head and face. She had several trigger points in those areas. In the attachments I posted you can see some of her trigger points. There is a relastionship between the hip and skull, and between the low back and neck( Cranial Sacral, and Sacral Occipital Technique)which is real. There is also a relationship between the abdominal area and the low back. As well as the abdominal area and headaches(visceral somatic reflexes). I palpated a very tender point in the upper right quadrent of her abdominal aera. When she left the spa she felt way better and no longer had a headache(she had a smile and looked unstressed).. All those trigger points vanished, at least temporarily. She is going to come back in a few days for a follow up. If I can wipe out all those trigger points( I think I can). She's gonna feel pretty dang good.
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great job, as usual. Not only do you have the physical skills, you understand the psychology of pain
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There IS truth to what you say Gary. I've had "chiro" patients (massage clients) tell me that they really only come in to see me, not the chiro but in order for their insurance to pay for the visit, they "have to" get a chiro treatment... ugh.
I have a massage client who is a dental hygienist who does not get chiro treatment from the DC I work for. Client only visits me. Says I'm helping her with tingling down the arms (stemming from TrPs in Traps/Levators/Scalenes/suboccipitals -- at least that's where I'm finding the TrPs/taut bands). Gordon has sure been helpful to me thus far!
Gary W Addis, LMT said:Here, a couple Dcs are wise enough to do that, but some are even wiser, to know that if the MT takes awaay the pain, the customer might cancel the adjustment. :)
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