I had an interesting thing happen. The other day, I worked on a client that came in because she was passing by and had gotten overbooked by the person she was seeing (another field). Last night, she called me and told me of all the pain she had been in the evening after I worked on her, and how much she was still hurting. I sat there with my mouth hanging open for a bit, but once it snapped shut, I started thinking and asking questions.
At first, I wondered how I could hurt her to the point that she was now. (Do no harm. That’s the prime directive.) During the session, she kept telling me how good things felt, and never told me about being hurt or anything. She had initially come in with tendonitis in her shoulder, which was hurting from her neck to her hand. She was now hurting in her neck shoulders, with occasional shooting pains down to her low back.
I had worked deeply into her neck the other day, as it was needed. I asked if there was something wrong with her neck that could have caused this. That was when she remembered a chiropractor telling her she had bone spurs in her neck. Ouch. (Bone spurs are deposits of calcium that form, and usually end up being sharp. I have had them in my heels, and they are painful. Doctors will either cut them out, or inject some thick substance that will coat the spur so that it is no longer sharp.) Had I known about these spurs, I certainly would have worked differently in her neck.
When I saw her today, she also told me that she had degeneration of discs in her spine between her shoulder blades and in her low back. Hmmm. I would have worked differently there too.
Now, before you tell me that I should have picked that up on a scan, I did find all of her problem areas. I just couldn’t tell you if they were muscle pulls or bone breaks or anything in between. That is something I hope to be able to do some day as I grow. I just don’t seem to be able to do it now.
I started today by checking her cranial sacral pulse. It was strong and straight. Next I did some low level sensing in her neck to pinpoint problems areas. Then I went inside to see where these spurs were. I’m not too sure that what I saw was correct. Once I think there is something there, it clouds my sensing because I then expect to see something there. If I don’t, then I don’t know if I’m not seeing correctly, or if there is truly nothing there. (This is why I scan clients before looking at their information forms. It may freak them out a moment, but I still do it.)
I ended up doing a good deal of Reiki, and some massage. The massage was to loosen things back up, and to work out the knots that had appeared since the other day. I stayed away from the neck, except for the energy work. The Reiki relieved things, and removed a lot of pain. I’m hoping that she stays loose, and doesn’t tighten back up.
I suggested that she see a doctor as she has been having problems on and off for some time. I didn’t charge her anything. I could have, and maybe should have, but I didn’t. It was the work I did that made her hurt. Of course, I would not have worked like that had I been given all of her health information.
The lesson here is that when someone gives you a health form, and it asks for any problems you might have, fill it out completely and don’t leave anything out. Without this knowledge, the person working on you may hurt you because they are not aware of certain problem areas. This is true for a massage therapist, doctor, chiropractor, dentist, you name it. Anyone that is going to do any kind of invasive or manipulative work on you could make problems worse. (This, of course, is not true for Reiki practitioners. Reiki will do no harm.)
The sad part in all of this is that my client told me that her massage the other day was the best massage she had ever had. Stuff happens I guess, at least along the lines of whatever perverse plans the universe has.