Therapeutic Orthopedic Massage, Relaxation Massage, Deep Tissue Massage, Trigger Point Threrapy, Microcurrent Facials, Sports Orthopedic Massage

NEWS ARCHIVE

POST SURGERY ORTHOPEDIC MASSAGE THERAPY

I would like to EMPHASIZE the importance, to our post-surgery patients, in reducing their post-surgery trauma, pain, and assist in improving the mobility and flexibility of tissue and joints through the use of regular Orthopedic massage treatments.

Post-surgery Massage helps in reducing contractures, relaxing tight muscles that are guarding due to the trauma of the surgery, and the laying down of collagen substructures which cause scar tissues around the incision and surrounding tissues. It is VITAL that that incision site and joints be massaged after 7 days of healing. Of course pressure and intensity of massage will be light at first and will increase as time goes on helping to reduce swelling, redness, and pain.

I encounter many clients who are at the post-surgery stage and who have never received any instruction by their general physicians or surgeons to seek massage therapy as an integral part of their post-surgery treatment. The result is that the post-surgery population is suffering needlessly in pain for months and years because of untreated contractures, muscle adhesions, and scar tissues and its resulting consequences of reduced range of motion.

If you have recently had surgery, please call Bomi Massage at 408-835-4214 and set up an appointment.

BOMI'S OPTIMUM HEALTH NEWSLETTER - September 2009

Think - Thank your brain for your pain, not the area that hurts

Pain is our body's alarm system telling us when something needs attention. In the case of chronic pain, the alarm system has become too sensitive.

Pain may be a pain, but it does serve a valuable purpose. If we didn't have pain, we may not realize that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. That said, it is important to understand that it is our brain that decides whether or not to give us pain. In situations where it would be counterproductive to be in pain, like on a battlefield for example, pain often is not felt until soldiers have made it to safety. The brain's job is to analyze all the information that it receives from all our senses and determine whether or not it is in our best interest to be in pain. So if you are in pain, your brain has somehow concluded that creating pain will serve you - a certain tissue in your body is under threat, and your brain wants you to do something about it. So, if you are in pain, the key is finding out why your brain has made that decision.

Think of pain like a complicated alarm system that is set to protect you. You accidentally touch a stovetop, and the alarm goes off, you instantly feel pain, so you take your hand away before too much damage is done. Initially physical pain is caused by tissue damage. But if there has been sufficient healing time, and you are still in pain, there may have been a change in the sensitivity of the alarm system (the central nervous system and brain), and it takes less stimulus to set the alarm off, so activities that didn't hurt before, now do. Something like those super sensitive car alarms that go off when you walk by on the other side of the street. You are too far away to actually steal the car, yet the alarm went off. Chronic pain usually isn't about the tissue anymore. Instead, the brain is receiving a faulty message that there is more danger to the tissue than there actually is, and is therefore creating pain. The alarm goes off way before there is any chance of tissue damage. So, dealing with chronic pain is frequently about resetting the alarm system to function normally again.

Coping with chronic pain is undeniably difficult. Taking full responsibility for your own pain and treatment is often helpful. Be certain you completely understand your problem and the treatments being suggested. Be active rather than passive in your coping strategy. Be aware that once pain is chronic, pain does not equal tissue damage, and if you always stop the activity once pain starts, over time your life may shrink as your alarm system becomes more and more sensitive. Movement is necessary to nourish all tissues and systems of the body, so find your baseline in the activity that you want to do, where you know you for sure that you will not flare up, even if all you can handle is 2 to 3 minutes. Very gradually add time to your baseline over the course of the next days and weeks. Pain flare-ups may happen. Take them into stride and be persistent with your gradual increase in activity. Over time your alarm system will begin to re-adjust.

This information is from the fantastic book Explain Pain by David Butler
M.App.Sc (The Sensitive Nervous System) and Lorimer Moseley PhD, a clinical and research physiotherapist and pain researcher at the University of Queensland. If you are in chronic pain, get this book, as it will help you understand the physiology of pain, which in itself can often do a lot to relieve it, and it will give you ways to manage and recover from your pain. It is written for the lay person As a healthcare practitioner dealing with people in chronic pain, reading this book sure changed the way I approach my chronic pain patients.