More Fibro Stuff....Massage & Bowen

Today I am going to share some of the myriad of treatments, modalities and experiences I have tried on my journey to wellness. I shared in an earlier post my list of supplements. As you will see I have tried many, many things. Some have worked, some may have subtley worked, some have not worked that I noticed. Where to start....hmmmmm.
First, it may be beneficial to share what kind of a lifestyle I now have. It is pretty low key. I only have to work part-time, which is good because stress makes the Fibromyalgia symptoms worse. I do have a stressor in my life, my husband has prostate cancer and I am his main cheerleader and advocate as we wend our way through his own healing journey. I noticed when he went in for surgery and during his long hospital stay that I had more of my old Fibro symptoms show up, well, mainly in my right leg. I had the same shooting pains at night that I used to have at the beginning. I used my old stand by Tylenol PM to get me through. What is funny is I didn't feel like I was stressed mentally, but obviously I was. I am a coper mentally, but then it shows up in my body. I want to send a BIG THANK YOU to Kim Elkins, my massage therapist, for always going above and beyond and really working on my tissues that have issues. What I love about Kim is the way I can say what is hurting and she tailors the massage to deal with the issues. This woman has talents! She also does Bowen therapy. I hadn't had Bowen for a few weeks and I truly feel that Bowen does good things for me, physically and mentally. While I am having a treatment I can get so relaxed and enter into a state I call "bliss", kind of like being in Lala Land, all floaty, almost asleep and so relaxing. It is WONDERFUL! So I have decided to make a commitment to myself and will have Bowen twice a month along with my weekly massages. Massages!!! They are what gets me through each week! Kim gives me therapeutic massages, they hurt most of the time, but then the next day or so later I feel soooooo much better. I do not know what a relaxing massage feels like. I have so many tender spots on my body that usually hurt during my massage. I know my body, so I am very excited when a spot no longer hurts. This has been happening more and more since I started to come to Kim. I started going to Kim in December 2008. I think there was Divine intervention here, she has become such an important part of my Team. My friend Hope actually went to Kim first and loved her. Hope mentioned that Kim did Bowen, my ears perked up and I soon met Kim and had my first Bowen treatment. The next day I felt like a Mack truck had hit me(this can be a normal occurance). Then the next day I felt better. I don't know how it works, or why it works, BUT it works! Here is a link to Bowen if you want more info. http://www.ketteringtherapeuticmassage.com/bowenwork_dayton_bowen_therapy.asp
Massage and Bowen are both a very important part of my healing now. A really neat thing that has happened is we have become friends too. See, Divine intervention. Besides having Fibro I have Chronic Myofascial Pain. This means that my fascia under my skin is not very fluid, it is hardened. Fascia is the connective tissue between our skin and muscles. It is the white filmy stuff when you pull the skin off a piece of raw chicken. Underneath the superficial fascia lies deep fascia, a much more densely packed and strong layer of fascia. The deep fascia covers the muscles in connective tissue aggregations which help to keep the muscles divided and protected. This deep fascia can create tight knots or connective adhesions which act as trigger points which can cause pain. A variety of treatments including myofascial release and stretching are used to treat this condition, which can be debilitating and extremely painful. I get trigger points and have had trigger points that have resolved. They can hurt so bad! Right now I have two on my right and left shoulder blades, I call them the twins. I don't mind these two because they do not cause me pain in my daily life or when Kim massages them. They just crunch and pop and say hello when they are massaged. In the past I had two very large trigger points on both of my shoulder muscles and they hurt and were pulling my shoulders up towards my ears. They kept growing bigger and bigger. At the time I had these trigger points I was getting my weekly massages at Miami Jacob School of Medical Massage's Serenity Day Spa. I had an awesome student at the time, Cody. I asked her what I should do at home because the weekly massage wasn't winning the battle of the trigger points. She recommended a tool called the Theracane. I researched Theracanes and decided to get a similar tool called a Back Buddy. I bought mine on Amazon.com. It worked, after about a month! I used it a couple times a day, pressing the ball of the Back Buddy into my trigger points 10 seconds at a time a couple of times each session. Here is the link for Serenity Day Spa if you want to have student massages at a reduced price. http://www.miamijacobs.edu/Serenity/ Serenity is a very professional place and it is affordable and you usually get a good massage. If you need deep body work, trigger point release therapy or muskuloskeletal work I would recommend a LMT, who has specialized in these areas. After all they are students and are still learning.
Sorry...I have run out of time for today and only covered a wee bit of what I have tried. So there is LOTS more to look forward to!
Have a wonderful day! I am!