Post-trauma, post-injury, post-surgery

Getting back to normal activity; man does that sound good. There are events and injuries and surgeries that we are subjected to any of which can temporarily limit or almost eliminate our ability to engage in the activities of our day to day lives. For the more mature among us, those activities can be things like climbing a flight of stairs. For the professional athlete, we are talking about the very means of making a living. And unfortunately for both and for all the types of people in between, the period of time devoted to what we call rehabilitation is not the most pleasant of times. In short (pardon the language) - rehab is a bitch!

There's really no getting around it. At best rehab is fairly uncomfortable, and at worst it is downright excruciating. It is not easy. It takes commitment, patience, discipline, persistence, and a high tolerance to pain is a definite bonus. There is a huge difference between "healing" and "recovery". Healing is what occurs before rehab can begin. It takes between 6 and 12 weeks for body tissue traumatized by injury or surgery to mend - most rehab programs start in the 6-8 week timeframe post-trauma. So when a conventional medical practitioner talks about 6 weeks for healing, the unspoken portion is that it may and probably will be years before recovery is complete. Well health insurance isn't going to cover that. So you have to pay out of pocket for extremely expensive Physical Therapy, try to continue your program on your own, or find some alternatives that are fast, effective, and affordable - a daunting set of choices. The alternative is to suffer through with limited activity, pain, and an overall reduction in the quality of your life. We find the alternative to be totally unacceptable and are committed to your full recovery, well-being, and quality of life.

Pain - Range of Motion - Strength - Balance - Maintenance

Unfortunately for me having been an athlete for almost 55 years, I have had more than my fair share of injuries. I have too much first hand knowledge about the difference between healing and recovery. It's funny what they don't tell you before they start cutting and sewing. And I discovered that "getting around" is a far cry from returning to my normal routine. So as I have been getting older, I've been taking note of the proper sequence of recovery that should be followed or a successful rehabilitation program. I will say it again here and repeatedly throughout this site. We are all different. The same rehab program applied to two different people with the same condition will not necessarily yield the same result because we are all different.

Immediately following a physical trauma, the body takes steps to protect itself and the injured area. I will forego any discussions of psychological or emotional trauma, but rest assured the mechanism is similar. Note here that surgery is a traumatic injury as far as the body is concerned. Some things that the body does is produce pain so you can identify the location of the imjury and to prevent you from using the area. Muscles are turned off - the amount of atrophy within only the first 24 hours after a simple arthroscopic knee surgery is amazing - muscle atrophy is a combination of turning off the nerves that are needed to use the muscle and "deflating" the muscle rendering it quite weak. I also believe that the body either produces more pain receptors in the injured area or converts existing nerves in the area into pain receptors. This causes hypersensitivity and pain should you try to use or move that part of the body. Over time, these new or converted neurons either go away or return to their original function. That is all my own hypothesis based upon observing myself as the "lab rat".

Based on my own sequence of recovery from both a knee surgery and an achilles tendon repair, I have concluded that all recovery and rehab starts with the reduction or elimination of pain. Covering up the pain with narcotics does not count. Until the pain is eliminated or reduced to a manageable level, the body will simply not allow the recovery to continue. The manageable level I speak of is completely dependent upon an individuals tolerance to endure discomfort - we are all different. Once the pain is under control, we move to ncreasing range of motion in the injured area. A mistake that is frequently made at this point is to jump to strengthening. What is ignored is the tremendous imbalance that the body has created in the musculature. To jump to strengthening at this point will not bring back the weakened muscles as the work will be done by the ones that are already strong - result: an even bigger imbalance. Range of Motion - Active and Passive stretching and movement. Once things are moving properly we move to strengthening with focus on low resistance so we can engage the weak muscles. As strength returns, we raise the resistance and increase the stretching with special attention on keeping things in balance. This is where the patience comes in regardless of who you are. Just look at the problems Tiger Woods has had over the past several years since his reconstructive knee surgery. Then we have maintenance which is a never ending process. Typically th injured area will never be the same when the injury or surgery is serious enough - the body remembers and to some degree will always devote some protective energy to that area. It took me 18 months for my knee and more than 2 years for my achilles tendon to get to the point where I was willing to say that I had recovered. My health insurance covered the first 10 weeks.

The Massage on the Move Approach

We understand the process, but when we start working with you, we cannot predict how your body will respond. We understand the need for patience and for measuring progress in small increments. The other thing about progress is to measure it against where we were right after surgery or injury, not where we were before we got hurt or where we want to end up. We'll set a goal and set a program, make adjustments as we progress, and see how it goes - because we are all different.

We use an integrative approach to rehab. We mix in different types of therapy in different amounts. We are always on the lookout for new methods that are emerging. We take a neuromuscular approach to the process retraining the nervous system and with it the muscular system to function at their best. We discourage the use of narcotic drugs for pain as they will prevent us from assessing your progress. We rely heavily upon ETPS and MyoKinesthetic Massage as our primary tools. We use more conventional massage techniques such as Swedish and Sports Massage to help the body keep going in the direction we are pushng it. Our first session always includes a full assessment and goal setting discussion before we start working. Call us to set up an appointment.