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2/6/2012 0 Comments Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
Case Study #1: A mechanic, John, is scheduled for carpal tunnel surgery in a few weeks. I found trigger points in lats, back muscle, and subscapularis, rotator cuff, that refers the identical pain to his wrist. The supervising physician agreed that I had found the source of pain, but also believed that John had suffered with the symptoms for so long that surgery was still a must. This does happen. Still, carpal tunnel surgery, more often than not, only treats the symptoms.
Case Study #2: A teacher, Mandy, is scheduled for surgery in a few weeks. I found trigger points in her upper traps, shoulder, that refers the identical pain to her wrist. Mandy condition developed from writing overhead on a white board in her classroom. I treated her three times. The pain left! Mandy’s doctor cancelled the surgery. Case Study #3 A massage therapist, Autumn, had carpal tunnel surgery 4 months prior to seeing me. The searing pain had returned with the same intensity. Working as a massage therapist contributed to the strain in her neck and schoulders.I found trigger points in her shoulder and neck that sent the identical pain to her wrist. I treated her twice. The pain disappeared. Case Study #4: A Typist, Beth, was scheduled for surgery in a few weeks. I found trigger points in her neck that sent the identical pain to her wrist. I treated her twice. The Dr. cancelled the surgery. Case Study #5: A Sonographer , Jessi, has pain in her wrist. She was told by her family doctor to see a specialist. When she came to see me, I found trigger points in her neck, shoulder and back that sent the identical pain to her wrist. Her pain disappeared. I am still waiting to hear the end of the story.
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2/3/2012 0 Comments Chronic Cough, Post SurgeryPenny had undergone surgery for an aneurysm five years earlier. Post surgery, she developed a constant cough. Every 30 seconds to a minute she had to cough. Her surgeon was inclined to believe that the surgery caused nerve damage. Penny did not want to undergo another surgery. She spent the following years coughing every minute of the day. This interrupted all aspects of her life, sleep, work, home. When she entered my clinic, and before we were introduced, I could actually see the tightness in her neck muscles. She explained her history and chief complaint. We started work promptly. Without delay we found trigger points in several muscles of her neck that caused the feeling of needing to cough. Her cough was not productive, it was just a tickle in her throat that made it feel like she needed to cough. We determined that the position that she had to be in on the operation table was the weightiest factor in the shortening of these neck muscles as well as the consequent development of trigger points.  We never completely got rid of her cough but did reduce the intensity and frequency by 90%. Her happiest report was that she was able to eat Doritos again without having to cough. Her testimony is below.
I cannot say enough of what Neuromuscular Therapy has done for me in the short time I have been in this treatment. I had surgery in 1997 due to an aneurysm in the back of my left eye. I had some kind of trauma to my throat or a slight stroke about three months after. Since, and for nine years now, I have been enduring a constant need to cough. Over the years the cough had become so severe that my physical health was affected. The nerves and muscles were so tight in my neck and in so much stress that I often felt like I would probably have a major stroke in my throat. I felt I was a hopeless case. It is amazing how much my cough has improved with this therapy. The stress I had in my neck and throat is at a level that has given me a new positive outlook. I have also learned therapy I can do at home that helps in maintaining my cough and the stress in my throat. I have been impressed how knowledgeable the therapists are in dealing with my particular situation. They listen to me, change the type of therapy as needed or indicated and it is working. I know I will have to continue these treatments to keep me from regressing back to where I was. I just wished more people knew about this kind of therapy so they could see positive results as I have. It has certainly changed my life. A young man, 30, made an appointment as a last chance in finding relief from his back pain before surgery. As a teen he hurt his back in a fall. Physical therapy taught him some coping skills at best. As a steel worker in his 20’s, his back continued to hurt him. He later took an office job. His pain got worse. Surgery was his recommended course of action. Due to the location of his pain, straight line across his low back and straight line across his lower thoracics, mid back, I went directly to two specific trigger point locations on his abdominals. He worked out a lot and put a significant amount of time working on his abs. He did have a 6-pack. This was another indicator that I might find the culprit in hisabdominal muscles.  “It’s my back that hurts. Why are you working on my stomach”, he questioned with disbelief. I replied, “If I work exactly where you hurt, 75% of the time I am working in the wrong place. It may feel good or right for me to work on the location of pain but I am more than likely NOT working on the cause of the pain. Plus all of the sitting you do followed by all the ab work you do in the gym, I think these muscles are shortened and may have trigger pointsthat can refer to the back.” It took less than 2 minutes to find the first trigger point in his rectus abdominus muscle that referred pain to his mid back. Working that trigger point referred pain straight through to his back and felt like “a rod going all the way through, just like it does when it hurts real bad”. The pain left. Working on his lower abdominals elicited the same response for his low back, again “like a rod going straight through just like it does when it hurts”. Again, his pain was alleviated. I also performed a pin and stretch on his deeper psoas muscle, a primary hip flexor, which mimicked even more familiar pain. Again, “that worked, I don’t hurt”. I taught him some stretches to do in order to maintain his pain free status. I also showed him how to find these trigger points on his abs so that he could treat himself when he hurts. He walked out without any pain. NO SURGERY NO REPEAT VISITS. |
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September 2019
Bobby LewisNeuromuscular Therapist 
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