James Boelter
02-18-2004, 02:24 AM
Having seemingly strained the "Flexor Pollici Longus" tendon (which powers the thumb/thenar muscles) in my right volar forearm recently during a clinical massage, I've been feeling the chilly breath of mortality and facing the abrupt end of my dream career as a massage therapist after only 7 months of school. (That particular tendon has been a weak point for several years, and tends to flare up whenever I work Clubbells too hard, too soon, so it's not a big surprise).
I've read enough and trained enough to know that 'he who treats the pain where it hurts is lost'. So I performed seeking massage on the area, including the thenar pad, and behold, found trigger points and referred pain in both the thenar pad AND just under the distal base of the first metatarsal (index finger to non-anatomy geeks).
And tonight in class, we saw our first Neuromuscular Therapy video (by Sean Riehl) on the extremities, and there it was...it turns out that it's a BAD mistake to perform 'rotary' motions with the thumb under a load, and that the FPL tendon is the one most frequently injured in massage therapists. (Talk about good timing! :D ). So the real problem with my forearm lays in the way I use my thumb. And the most effective treatment seems to be in the thumb/thenar pad trigger points, and a certain anchor/stretch protocol where the sore spot in the forearms gets the anchor (stationary pressure ) from the other hand or knuckle, while the thumb flexes back and forth to essentially iron out the strained fibers in the tendon under the pressure. This is very cool.
But what scares me is that if I had gone to a GP, there is a VERY good chance that I simply would have gotten a prescription for NSAIDs and been told to 'take it easy' for a couple weeks (not an option at this point if I want to graduate or to start a career afterwards). I could have fumbled around for weeks, MONTHS, before I managed to argue my way into a referral to a PT, who could probably have diagnosed the real problem in 30 seconds.
Friggin Health Care system...I already know more than 95% of the public and lay people out there, and yet I managed to hurt myself. And if I hadn't had some previous clues from reading people like Pete Egoscue and Coach Sonnon, I could easily have spent the rest of my life in pain, waiting for the next flareup and loss of income. And if I hadn't been lucky enough to KNOW there had to be a non-surgical, non-drug related approach, I might not have been lucky enough to see this particular video.
And what kills me is: the NMT approach, if you know a little anatomy, is completely straight forward and easy to apply. There are only about five techniques - the rest is all knowing where to apply it (avoiding getting fooled by referred pain and some muscle testing) and how to rotate/adduct etc body parts so you can get directly at the muscles with the problem. Once I completely absorb the material in this one 2 hour video, I will be able to help a whole bunch of people (not everyone, but most people) get past seemingly intractable pain and debility, or at least give them major improvements, in only 2-3 short sessions.
(Riehl also includes a simple, straight-forward 'self care' regime based on this techniques for anyone who works a lot with his hands and is at risk for RIS type injuries).
So why did I have to become a professional massage therapist to hear about this stuff? Why isn't it common public knowledge? I'm no bodywork prodigy...this is SIMPLE STUFF!!! Why don't even most doctors and nurse-practitioners seem to know about it? This info is simple enough that it could be in 'picture format' pamphlets in your first aid kit, along with the aspirin! Why are so many people limping along with shots and pills and splints and similar bandaids when help is so simple and so close at hand?
What the heck happened to us???
I've read enough and trained enough to know that 'he who treats the pain where it hurts is lost'. So I performed seeking massage on the area, including the thenar pad, and behold, found trigger points and referred pain in both the thenar pad AND just under the distal base of the first metatarsal (index finger to non-anatomy geeks).
And tonight in class, we saw our first Neuromuscular Therapy video (by Sean Riehl) on the extremities, and there it was...it turns out that it's a BAD mistake to perform 'rotary' motions with the thumb under a load, and that the FPL tendon is the one most frequently injured in massage therapists. (Talk about good timing! :D ). So the real problem with my forearm lays in the way I use my thumb. And the most effective treatment seems to be in the thumb/thenar pad trigger points, and a certain anchor/stretch protocol where the sore spot in the forearms gets the anchor (stationary pressure ) from the other hand or knuckle, while the thumb flexes back and forth to essentially iron out the strained fibers in the tendon under the pressure. This is very cool.
But what scares me is that if I had gone to a GP, there is a VERY good chance that I simply would have gotten a prescription for NSAIDs and been told to 'take it easy' for a couple weeks (not an option at this point if I want to graduate or to start a career afterwards). I could have fumbled around for weeks, MONTHS, before I managed to argue my way into a referral to a PT, who could probably have diagnosed the real problem in 30 seconds.
Friggin Health Care system...I already know more than 95% of the public and lay people out there, and yet I managed to hurt myself. And if I hadn't had some previous clues from reading people like Pete Egoscue and Coach Sonnon, I could easily have spent the rest of my life in pain, waiting for the next flareup and loss of income. And if I hadn't been lucky enough to KNOW there had to be a non-surgical, non-drug related approach, I might not have been lucky enough to see this particular video.
And what kills me is: the NMT approach, if you know a little anatomy, is completely straight forward and easy to apply. There are only about five techniques - the rest is all knowing where to apply it (avoiding getting fooled by referred pain and some muscle testing) and how to rotate/adduct etc body parts so you can get directly at the muscles with the problem. Once I completely absorb the material in this one 2 hour video, I will be able to help a whole bunch of people (not everyone, but most people) get past seemingly intractable pain and debility, or at least give them major improvements, in only 2-3 short sessions.
(Riehl also includes a simple, straight-forward 'self care' regime based on this techniques for anyone who works a lot with his hands and is at risk for RIS type injuries).
So why did I have to become a professional massage therapist to hear about this stuff? Why isn't it common public knowledge? I'm no bodywork prodigy...this is SIMPLE STUFF!!! Why don't even most doctors and nurse-practitioners seem to know about it? This info is simple enough that it could be in 'picture format' pamphlets in your first aid kit, along with the aspirin! Why are so many people limping along with shots and pills and splints and similar bandaids when help is so simple and so close at hand?
What the heck happened to us???