I Feel Your Pain
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 4:21PM There are certain things when learning the English language that really stick in one's head: for instance, when to use 'your' instead of 'you're'; whether you're 'right' or want to 'write' and, for me the difference between 'empathise' and 'sympathise'.
I'm lucky enough to be able to say that for the majority of my life I have been injury free (and given how much I've put my body through over the years I can only put it down to pure fluke!) so when clients come to me with back pain, shoulder pain, pulled hamstrings, tight calves (and so on and so forth) for the most part I can only sympathise. Listening to what someone is experiencing in their body is key, in my opinion, to being a good therapist and being able to deliver the appropriate treatment. It is, in fact, an essential part of any treatment I give.
However, recently I have had a sharp wake-up call from my own body. A few weeks ago my body decided it was time that I get on board with empathising rather than sympathising.
I awoke one morning with a stiff neck which, like most of you would agree isn’t a big deal so I went about my day dismissing it from my mind as nothing to worry about, expecting it to ease off as time passed. Several clients and one gruelling gym session later (perhaps in retrospect I really should have given the gym a miss) I found myself on unchartered territory. I could barely move my head without severe pain running down my neck and into my upper back as well pain radiating up and round my right ear.
I couldn’t sit, stand, or even lie down without feeling agony. Pillows, no pillows, on my side, on my back, on my front (wait...this is starting to sound like an x-rated erotica blog!). Any which way, you get the picture, there was a lot of pain involved!
With each client I saw I was silently whimpering and trying not to think of how much I wanted to trade places with them and be the one having the massage. The sheer effort of holding my body was becoming unbearable so after my last client of the day had gone I headed straight for my freezer and fished out a bag of ice. My housemate found me later stiffly sat on the sofa, ice melting, t-shirt soaking and me, unable to move and upset that icing had not had the desired effect (and that being pain relief!).
In my freezing, and somewhat distressed state, I manoeuvred myself into bed and hoped that by the morning the muscle spasm would have calmed down...
But noooo! In theory the only time the body is able to properly heal and regenerate is when we are asleep. Sadly, no sleep for me that night as with every slight movement I was jolted back to consciousness by the pain. Now, I appreciate you may be thinking I’m exaggerating but, for those of you who know me what I’m about to say next is only proof that this is not the case. The following morning, at the earliest opportunity I went and bought....ibuprofen.
It was bad enough to be in that state but I felt even worse that I had to give in to pills in the vain hope it would help me get through the day. Which they did, but (and now I’m being REALLY honest) I took more than the recommended dosage. And why? Because even by exceeding the dose* I was STILL in pain!
As fate would have it, that day I received a call from a newly qualified sports massage therapist who was actually keen to do a treatment swap. Needless to say I accepted his offer and arranged for him to head over as soon as possible. Now, if I had stopped for a moment to think about this I would have postponed his offer of treatment (I blame the drugs, I was clearly delirious!). Usually I rave about how fantastic massage is for injury recovery, and whilst I stand by that there is a golden rule: when in the acute stages of muscle spasm it’s generally not advised to have massage treatment as you’re in danger of making the problem worse.
To be fair the massage didn’t seem to make my condition worse (although again, that could be down to the amount of ibuprofen I had taken!) but it certainly didn’t make it any better L
So, instead of calling my chiropractor and asking for help I opted for walking and moving around like C3PO, which, I found made crossing the road really hard work. By the time I’d managed to look one way, then the other and back again I’d missed my opportunity of crossing altogether. Never in my life had I been so grateful for the flashing green man to help me get from one side to the other!
It wasn’t until I actually bumped into my chiropractor in the street and he asked me why I was moving around like a robot that I realised I had to accept his offer of help.
The next day came the help, and relief, that I had been too stubborn (or simply crazy) to ask for in the first place. Thanks to both my chiropractor and physiotherapist I was able to look over my shoulder again...still sore but to have the movement back was heavenly.
And now was the time to have a massage! Indeed the treatment swap was a success and the massage relieved the muscle soreness, so not only could I move like a normal person but I didn’t have any pain when I moved like a normal person (handy!)
My own experience not only highlighted the importance of health professionals working together, and just how effective that can really be, but I now really empathise with how exhausting it is being in pain all the time. It’s often confused me why people put up with aches and pains for so long without seeking any kind of treatment for pain relief and yet, there I was, exactly the same! Putting up with pain in order to get through my working week and putting my own body as low on my priority list as possible.
The help is there folks, whether you choose to accept it or not (and I think that may be the hard part), so whether it’s a ‘niggle’ or a full on debilitating problem I have confidence that those people in my professional network (myself included of course!) will be able to help your body move, in any way you want, pain free.
*please understand I would NEVER advocate my behaviour and as general practice I also advise taking anti-inflams as a LAST resort only (just needed to stress that!)
Reader Comments (2)
The pain from an acute injury is usually unbearable and can lead to altered decision making. My advice get the correct diagnosis as soon as possible and be guided by their expert training. Sometimes patients are unfortunately too acute to treat and may need advice initially followed by hands on treatment. I always include massage treatment via a massage therapist. My advice combination therapy works!
Good one, thanks for post, i think the work done by chiropractic and physiotherapy are best , and i had such experience, thanks for sharing such post.