At the time you can’t quite believe the pain. Taking painkillers and anti-inflammatories every 4 hours to get through the day. Sleeping and turning over in bed can be impossible. But within days, if not hours, this can change. Positioning is a big thing as when we do something our body doesn’t like our muscles seize up. This in turn stops us moving because we stiffen up. If we were able to keep loose this wouldn’t happen. If we could separate the head from the body and stay relaxed movement wouldn’t become an issue.
But our pain body remembers. Feelings feel familiar – and sometimes not in a good way! I liken it to an ex who when you meet again reminds you why you broke up in the first place. But unlike with going back to past mistakes, if you can find hope in getting out of the situation – with lengthening the tissues through soft tissue work and stretching, you can move forward to discovering a pain free body again.
Patient G came to see me in agony with their neck, it had seized up and pain was stabbing into the jaw. There was no incident to cause this, but they had had an accident over 20 years ago breaking their shoulder in several places. After the first session pain was significantly reduced. They were delighted so we had a further session to make sure everything was calmed down.
Fast forward 6 months and I saw they’d booked in again. My mind went straight in to ‘what have they done?’. They were sat poker straight as far back in the chair as they could without being swallowed by it when I went to collect them. Having been on a flight they had dropped their ear bud under a neighbouring seat. As the person next to them wouldn’t move they twisted in resistance to the seatbelt craning their neck to retrieve it. 3 days later they could barely move. Blaming the neighbour they panicked that they wouldn’t be able to train, travel or ever get out of this pain. Again one treatment and their pain had subsided dramatically. They came for a further session and we found other areas of tightness which could have been leading to these sites.
Patient T was not only stressed at work but had very noisy neighbours who would cause a noticeable reaction in their body. When they would hear them coming in late at night they would have to talk themselves round to not react. This reaction is visceral, it takes over from your rationale, your logic.They would feel their left shoulder creeping up near their ear. Soft tissue work encouraged it back down.
Patient N had a hip replacement last year after chronic arthritis for over a decade. They had come to a standstill with pain management and how much they could do. With small children and wanting to get back to performing in a dance group, their brain had become used to managing activities. People around them were used to protecting them having seen them in agony. But, after a session you could see their eyes lighting up as something had shifted because they could feel it working.
They explained “A huge part of having a successful relationship with you and your treatment is knowing that I can let go of worrying about pain because in a few days i’ll see you and feel much better. That in turn gives me faith that my op has worked so I worry less about that and what my path to recovery looks like”.
They may not be skipping in, but they are skipping out of the treatment room with something they didn’t have before…hope. The burden is shared when you find something that takes the pain away and someone who can help not only in a physical sense but mentally too.
The what, where and how to BOOK AN APPOINTMENT
Recent Comments