I mentioned in my yoga post that I see a massage therapist and thought I would share about the alternative medicine that changed my life.
My pain began probably somewhere between my junior and senior years of college. I had experienced joint pain in my knees (mostly from running long distances on hard surfaces and years of improper running shoes) before but I started to experience pain in my shoulders, especially when doing push ups. Slowly the pain grew and I occassionally had painful popping in my right shoulder and then the left. My treatment... ignore it! Suck it up! Rub some dirt in it! Drink water! And every other terrible piece of Army advice.
Then about a year ago, I started having neck pain. I thought it was from bad pillows and some lack of sleep. I tried some Aleve and of course, that did very little. So I ignored it some more. Then in January I had the worst headache of my life. I was sensitive to light, my right hand went numb, and I was slurring my words, when I could find them. I went to see my doctor after and she was concerned that it was either occipital neuralgia, migraines or a stroke. I was having lots of what I called residual headaches (basically two weeks of minor headaches constantly) and so she gave me medicine for that.
At this point, I had never considered that the shoulder pain was related to the neck pain was related to the headaches. So, I kept ignoring it. Then I had another crazy headache in May. I took two fast dissolving pills that are over $100 each and it did nothing except make me nauseous and sick the whole next couple of days. So I went to see my doctor again. Though still concerned about occipital neuralgia, and about why I wasn't going to the ER about possible strokes, she knew that since I didn't respond to the migraine medicine, it wasn't that. So she wondered if it was tension headaches. And, being the best Army doctor I have ever met, she sent me to Acupuncture and a Chiropractor to see if some of the tension in my neck, shoulders and back could be causing the headaches.
Both the chiropractor and acupuncturist believed this to be the case. My chiro explained it like this: The muscles in the neck and back are connected to the nerves at the base of my skull. There is so much tension in my back and neck that when it gets too tense my muscles are pulling on those nerves causing terrible headaches. So I started seeing each of them weekly. The chiropractor's adjustment helped more than the acupuncturist's needles, but both were only causing temporary relief. I was still in so much pain and it was really interferring with everything by that point. The little relief I was getting made it feel that much worse when the pain came back.
My chiropractor then told me that really what I needed was a massage therapist who could specialize in trigger points, because I have so so so many of them. Unfortunately, massage therapy is one thing that Fort Carson doesn't offer, so it wouldn't be covered by Tricare (the Army's medical insurance), like acupuncture and chiropractor were.
However, my husband's flexible spending account (FSA) would.
Anyway, seeing Parker at The Shade Tree Massage in Colorado Springs changed everything for me. She is a neuromuscular massage therapist and I see her for trigger point massage. It is a very painful type of massage because it goes deep into very tender areas, but Parker helps increase circulation to the areas and always keeps moving around to cause less pain in the trigger points. After all the pain I have been in for months, I am finally reaching a point of being pain free. I am certainly not there yet, but there are many days where I have little to no pain. And most of the time, even when the pain comes back, it isn't as bad as it was before I started massage therapy. I was in so much pain that I pretty much quit doing outdoor activities, couldn't clean my house without pain and headaches, and simple things like laundry became nearly impossible. I needed so much more sleep and rest and I was begining to feel like I couldn't do anything else. But with Parker's help and a lot of trigger point massage, I am truly getting my life back!
*For more information about Parker and The Shade Tree please visit her website at theshadetree.massagetherapy.com.
My pain began probably somewhere between my junior and senior years of college. I had experienced joint pain in my knees (mostly from running long distances on hard surfaces and years of improper running shoes) before but I started to experience pain in my shoulders, especially when doing push ups. Slowly the pain grew and I occassionally had painful popping in my right shoulder and then the left. My treatment... ignore it! Suck it up! Rub some dirt in it! Drink water! And every other terrible piece of Army advice.
Then about a year ago, I started having neck pain. I thought it was from bad pillows and some lack of sleep. I tried some Aleve and of course, that did very little. So I ignored it some more. Then in January I had the worst headache of my life. I was sensitive to light, my right hand went numb, and I was slurring my words, when I could find them. I went to see my doctor after and she was concerned that it was either occipital neuralgia, migraines or a stroke. I was having lots of what I called residual headaches (basically two weeks of minor headaches constantly) and so she gave me medicine for that.
At this point, I had never considered that the shoulder pain was related to the neck pain was related to the headaches. So, I kept ignoring it. Then I had another crazy headache in May. I took two fast dissolving pills that are over $100 each and it did nothing except make me nauseous and sick the whole next couple of days. So I went to see my doctor again. Though still concerned about occipital neuralgia, and about why I wasn't going to the ER about possible strokes, she knew that since I didn't respond to the migraine medicine, it wasn't that. So she wondered if it was tension headaches. And, being the best Army doctor I have ever met, she sent me to Acupuncture and a Chiropractor to see if some of the tension in my neck, shoulders and back could be causing the headaches.
Both the chiropractor and acupuncturist believed this to be the case. My chiro explained it like this: The muscles in the neck and back are connected to the nerves at the base of my skull. There is so much tension in my back and neck that when it gets too tense my muscles are pulling on those nerves causing terrible headaches. So I started seeing each of them weekly. The chiropractor's adjustment helped more than the acupuncturist's needles, but both were only causing temporary relief. I was still in so much pain and it was really interferring with everything by that point. The little relief I was getting made it feel that much worse when the pain came back.
My chiropractor then told me that really what I needed was a massage therapist who could specialize in trigger points, because I have so so so many of them. Unfortunately, massage therapy is one thing that Fort Carson doesn't offer, so it wouldn't be covered by Tricare (the Army's medical insurance), like acupuncture and chiropractor were.
