This was my third time in the last 10 days working on a client. This time I may actually have done something right.
I have a married couple in their late 60s/70s that come down form Maryland every year. When they want massage, or need help, they call me.
With the husband, he usually comes when he has pain. The first time I met him several years ago, he had really bad back pain. I remember taking some 30 minutes getting trigger points out of his butt (glute muscles). That enabled him to walk without pain. This time it was very similar, but without the same results.
He came in Monday of last week. I went directly to the problem area and worked out trigger points. I did some stretching and loosened things up. When he got up, he said it felt like I had only gotten a small part of it, maybe 25%. So he made an appointment to come back in two days later. He told me that he figured it needed a little more time, but he had faith in me that I could fix it. I guess he had a little more faith than I did.
The next time, I was a little more extensive. I broadened my range of where I worked. I still got rid of a lot of trigger points, but when he got up, he said it felt worse. Trust me, this is not something I usually hear, nor is it something I like to hear. I was starting to think I was not going to come up with that miracle that he expected of me.
I was getting concerned that it might be somewhere that I could not reach, like under the bones of the spine or pelvis. I was also concerned that I might be beating on him too much. I understand that he needs to be able to walk, and getting rid of this pain is the key to that, but if I am pushing on a spot that hurts, I am most likely making it hurt worse. I felt that he needed time to let it heal a little before he came back. If I constantly push on something, it will eventually fight back. That is how muscles work.
So I told him to go home, drink a lot of water and put a heating pad on it, then call me back in a few days. Well today was that next day.
This time, I looked at it and then still wondered what he needed. Finally, I decided to approach it in a Myofascial Release (MFR) mode. I decided to look at his alignment and then treat the whole body, not just the problem areas. Duh. I should have thought of this the last time.
As I aligned him, he started feeling better. By the time we were done, he was out of pain and feeling great. Well, that miracle did happen, thanks to spirit pointing me in the right direction. And I am so relieved that it did.
So, now he is happy and so am I because he is feeling better.