Palliativity 204: reconfigure

In terms of pain as well as outlook, I’m doing much better than my last entry. I am still experiencing chronic pain, but I’ve been given better tools to combat it.

When my pain doc referred me to a rolfing masseuse out in the burbs a couple weeks ago, I was a bit skeptical. A massage? Really?

The first thing the masseuse did was have me take inventory of my 15 over years of treatment thus far. It’s a long list of dead ends and temporary fixes highlighted by recent breakthroughs: acupuncture, chiropractor, shiatsu, meds, years of rehab and surgeries.

At the moment, I am going thru what I am beginning to think of as stage 2 of post RFA recovery. My spinal nerves have been shut off, but now the years of muscle damage layered with all the physiological crutches I had to invent just to keep hobbling along are starting to catch up with me.

The good news is that this particular rolfer is awesome. First he used what amounts to a padded jackhammer to break up the knots in my neck. I could feel my insides shake like a jar of paint. Luckily my tolerance for such experiences are rather high. I tend to enjoy them actually. Then he used a very powerful and exotic for of muscle stim combined with rehab movements to retrain the muscle tissue. The idea was to break me down then build me back up all in one visit.

I left the office feeling like very content jello. I don’t know how much broken scar-tissue toxin got dumped into my system, but I felt rather off for the rest of the day. The benefits though were immediate and have served to lessen my daily pain by a margin for an entire week at this point. Although not completely cured, this course of treatment has proved good enough to go back for more.

With nerve pain, the best I could do was avoid certain movements or positions that would trigger a higher level of pain. If I was lucky enough to wake up in the morning in a pain free moment, I knew that as soon as I moved to begin my day the pain would return. This cycle was endless and healing was impossible.

My current muscle spasm situation works the opposite. Now, the more I stretch, lift and massage, the more healing takes place. It’s like driving on the left side of the road.

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