Therapy Updates

Leg Pain

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:20:00 +0000

Really! This one is hard to believe. A lady presented with leg pain, groin pain, knee pain and a walk like Chester from Gunsmoke. I sat with her in a free consult and asked what had happened to lead her here today. Two hip replacements, a knee they were injecting with rooster stuff (Person #2 who didn't assess), recent back injections for pain, (person #3 who didn't assess). I stood her up and she leaned to the right with all of her weight. Asked a simple question did they leave you short in that hip? "Yes, but no one wants to admit to it. But my last session with the PT, he mentioned it and gave me a lift he had handy." (Person #1 who did assess but didn't help!)

One year later, she is at a loss with the constant enduring pain. I went and tore up a cardboard box lid and put under her foot and keep layering until she felt even. "Wow that took the pain out of my leg immediately."

We did fascia work, heat around the hip rotators, light traction to the leg and kept the cardboard for the moment in her shoe. She walked out with a flex in the knee instead of the slamming back she walked in with. Sent her to a shoe maker, gave her some home suggestions that her husband can help out with.

She is looking forward to walking more normal and having less knee and back pain.

All I can say is REALLY! How can the medical society keep overlooking the basics? A 1/2 inch leg length would make any of us walk like Chester.

"If you don't assess you simply guess"
Debbie

Fainting Cured

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:50:00 +0000

Assessment came in another form this time. I have been training and doing manual therapy with a young girl for Volleyball. I got a call that she wouldn't be in because she had fainted at school and they were going to take her to the doctor and run some tests to find out the cause. Fast forward several weeks later, she returns with no diagnosis. I started asking questions about her eating habits which lead to a hypoglycemia possibility. One week later and more protien to begin the day and eating more often, she is symptom free and excited to get back on track with her training.

Sad that we have lost sight of the most obvious with young kids and their eating. Or should I say non-eating. A simple conversation before all the expensive tests or at least the conversation with the expensive tests might have served this girl differently.

Happy Ending-Assess (ask questions) Don't Guess (keep asking questions)

Nutrition the lost art!

Shoulder Impingement

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Short story on why to assess. I helped a lady recently who had the misdiagnosis of Parkinson's. Through an assessment I found shoulder impingement which was causing the shaking. I sent her for an orthopedic exam and the doctor comfirmed a frozen shoulder with impingement.

Moral to the story: If you don't assess you simply guess.

Happy Therapy

Debbie

GET THEIR MRI

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:42:00 +0000

I want to encourage all of you therapist to get in the habit and ask for the patients MRI report and learn to understand the impression. There are too many reasons for hip pain, back pain, shoulder pain, cervical, etc. When the patient brings you the MRI report, you can give an honest opinion if massage therapy will really help or if it will be temporary and they should seek further medical care. I know we all want to help and want to do it holistically, but sometimes it truely is a medical case that needs allopathic help. We can love and support our clients no matter what, lend an ear when no one else will listen. They believe in you, so take the time to really understand their condition. Knowing is far superior than guessing.

Happy Therapy!

Anterior Rotation and Assessment

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:10:00 +0000

I just worked on a PGA golf professional which has been experiencing back pain for the past year. He has been seen by chiropractors, physical therapist, and massage therapists. It still amazes me when he tells me they didn't assess all the motions that the back can do. Why? Isn't it logical to first look at all the motions the spine makes before treating? Anyway, after watching him forward flex, backbend, rotate and side bend. It was obvious that there was a problem at his transition point on the right hand side. On his finish (extreme rotation) he hurts at the very end of the movement (bone), on side bending he hurt at the very end of the movement (bone). A trigger point doesn't do this and think this is a chronic positional problem. Psoas was hypertonic on the right, right QL hypertonic with the same point on the other side equally as tight and hypertonic. Now think this through, psoas when tight can flex and side bend him right, when QL is tight it side bends and rotates the vertebra it is attached to. So long story short, I had him evaluated by another Chiropractor to confirm what I felt the muscular structure was doing and she concurred with me without a doubt. There is much more to tell about this and how he will be treated to correct this, but for now I just want to make a point.

The point: Assess don't guess.

Latissimus Dorsi

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:36:00 +0000

I couldn't believe the difference I made in such a short period of time in shoulder flexion and external rotation. Recently I had a young man that I worked on at the FCA. We tested him before getting on the table and on the table both his Lat test and GH joint were positive for lack of ROM and hypertonicity. He was unable to lay his arm flat to the table by about 30 degrees and the same with external rotation. I turned him into a side posture did pin and stretch to the lat and movement therapy. I used the manual cup on his infraspinatus and teres and some more on the Lat. Within five minutes we retested and the arm could now comfortably lay down to the table and he about a 10 degree deficit left of external rotation. We finished the last 10 degrees with muscle energy. He got off the table and had full function in both flexion and external rotation. He said he had been having trouble for about a year. Lesson learned, the more you understand which muscles are involved the quicker and better result you will get.

Debbie

AMTA Trip to Minneapolis

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 16:57:00 +0000

I was helping out at the CranioCradle booth for the 3 days. I touched many lives and one in particular stood out enough to write about. She shared with me that her husband was legally deaf from an accident and that she had just graduated massage school. Since working with him with her limited skills and knowledge he was able at times to go without the hearing aides. She asked me about his forward head posture and the types of therapies she should take in the future to continue to help him. I explained the role of SCM over working as he was overworking to hear someone. Go ahead, lean your ear to listen closely as someone whispers. That is using the SCM, scalenes, traps, etc. So what would help? NMT for head, neck, and TMJ work, Craniosacral therapy, muscle energy, entire fascial lines, cupping, heat, body retraining for posture, craniocradle, ATM for Cervical and that is just to name a few. I told her to keep adding to her tool box every chance she got because you just never know which technique or combo will do the trick.

Happy educating to all

Flexibility and Fibromyalgia

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 22:17:00 +0000

How can flexibility help fibromyalgia? The more flexible the muscles are the less likely they will be to cause compression on the nerves. Put a rubber band around your finger or wrist and leave it there, you will soon find out how compression can cause pain, tingling, and numbness all of which patients complain of that have the diagnosis of Fibromyalgia. Adding flexibility to your massage therapy sessions will help take the stress off of you as a therapist and will give the patient long lasting benefits. Using stretching in your therapy sessions is also a great teaching tool to the patient as to what they should continue to do at home. If you are unsure of how to add stretching to your massage routine, join us for our Flexibility Coaching Program.

Happy Stretching.

Eat, Pray, Love Another Message

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:54:00 +0000

I rarely work a Sunday, but I got this call from a young women who wanted to do something special for her mom's birthday. The only day both daughters and the mother would be available would be Sunday. Something in me said ok, we would be happy to make a very special day for your mother. They arrived and mom had never had a massage or a facial. If fact from what I learned about her that day I am quite sure she always did everything for everyone else. The reason I am writing about this very special lady this time is not because she was in pain, but because we all could learn a very valuable lesson from the unselfishness of this 45 year old lady. I took the daughter in first for her facial and asked what her mother's age was, and how special it was to do this for her. Her daughter tells me they have only had a couple of hours of sleep because for her mother's birthday she wanted to have a religious ceremony (they were Hindu) and the religious ceremony consisted of cooking lots of food starting at 3:00 in the morning for friends and family and praying. What a contrast to most of us who would have maybe wanted to be taken out for dinner or be bought some sort of gift. Her gift was giving to the people she loved, praying for the people she loved, and eating with the people she loved. If that is not beautiful and inspiring I can't imagine what is.

So to those that might read this, eat, pray, and love
Debbie

Shoulder Assessment with a surprise

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:03:00 +0000

This week even I got a surprise. I got a call from a chiropractor in town who was seeing a mutual patient. He called me to give me the results of an MRI that I had suggested to the client that if I were her I would get. The results were a full thickness tear of subscapularis, a partial tear of supraspinatus, arthritis in the AC joint, and arthritis in the labrium. He called to tell me how he couldn't believe he had missed the tears and I was right in my assessment of this patient. That was not the only surprise in this case. When I did the assessment she had full flexion, extension, abduction, internal and external rotation actively. She did not test weak in any of the muscles surrounding the joint. What? That's right, the only thing that allerted me was when we were attempting some simple strengthening exercises of flexion, she had a moment where the arm grabbed on the way down which is sometimes an indication that supraspinatus is partially toren and will grab the humerus on the eccentric load. The next indication was when I had her on the massage table I felt the grinding of the joint when moving the arm from external to internal rom. I noticed also that her SC joint was misaligned on that same side and was painful on palpation and was not smooth at either end of the clavical. There seemed to be that familiar almost clunk that a toren labrium will produce when moving once again from internal to external rom. So at the end of her third session we talked about her upcoming hip replacement and that after that she would not be able to get a MRI of her shoulder so why not go ahead and find out for sure what was going on with the shoulder. She originally came to me for some strength exercises of her hip and what she thought was a weakening shoulder over the course of the last year. What a surprise for her to find out not only will she be facing a hip replacement, but now a shoulder repair as well. This shows you the necessity and importance of feeling, listening, and assessing.

Happy Assessing, Debbie

Something Special About Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Sun, 09 May 2010 18:43:00 +0000

There was something so special this Sat. about the day before Mother's Day. We had 8 ladies join us for a Day of Beauty, a family that well deserved some pampering. That is not so unusual so why read on. Because there was one special lady which proved the power of touch. I needed my receptionist to translate for me, she only spoke Spanish. In this particular event I was needed as a facialist. I asked my receptionist to join me as I introduced this mother to her facial. She looked to be in her early 70's. Her and I would only be able to communicate with touch. I began to explain what was going to take place and my receptionist translated. She told me she suffered from vertigo and needed extra pillows and time to sit up. Her smile lit me up, her tiredness, her gentleness, all told me how much her life had been up to this point. Being pampered was not very familiar. The translation began to make her very comfortable with me and the trust began. I can't tell you how much this one experience can do for you if you look deep inside yourself as a therapist and really know what it is you are sent here to do. You are sent here to touch peoples lives, to understand a deeper part of yourself. What greater gift than that. We proceeded with no language and at the end we looked into each others eyes knowing that something special had just occurred. Not really knowing how to end the session, I said gracias, she told me oh no gracias to you, mucho experiencia, oh your hands, gracias, gracias. I hope you get the depth of this, there is not a larger thanks than to touch anothers soul. Without words, you can achieve so much.

Happy Mothers day..

Debbie Roberts

Shoulder Replacement

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 23:30:00 +0000

I just wanted to share with you an interesting case of a little lady of the age of 80. She had a right shoulder replacement 5 years ago. Which she told me was doing fine until her PT handed her a rope and asked her to stretch her quadriceps over her shoulder. After that she had loss of range of motion in the new joint. What happened? Well if you meet this lady, she is one determined active lady, and she probably pulled on that rope pretty hard. Anyway, I am seeing her now 2 years post that incident. Why, she came to me was because the other shoulder had ended up with a impingement and bursitis. So if you can imagine, she was without use of either shoulder. She is a widow and it was making life difficult to do anything with her arm much above 70 degrees if that. And the pain was bringing her down. There is a happy ending to this story, keep reading. She came to me in late Nov. She also has a severe scoliosis of the right back with high levels of pain at times and low levels all the time. So my time was divided between two shoulders and a entire back. She came in once a week for therapy. In 5 weeks, her left shoulder had full range of motion and her posture had improved. I did ATM each and every time. I used NMT, cupping, stretching, AIS, muscle energy, and Muscle Activation as the entire treatment. Two weeks ago, we hit a milestone, the shoulder replacement side, finally responded and she could lift her arm to about 140 and the pain had subsided. She is so thrilled, she is swinging her arms in the air showing everybody. I should mention also, she was a very faithful student. She did her isometrics and ROM exercises at home. She is dancing, she is doing Ti Chi and best of all she hung a clock on the wall all by herself. Her back has so much djd, that at best we can help keep her pain levels lower. But as you can see, nothing is stopping her. Keep her in your prayers. And I hope you will help one of our elderly out of an impossible situation because of this posting. Take care, until next time. Don't guess, assess. Debbie

Achilles Tendon

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:40:00 +0000

Recently I have seen quite a few runners with Achilles tendon pain. Each one had a different set of problems. The first one, I assessed her standing and then squatting. She had a severe pronation and a obvious dropped navicular. Her heel pad looked like it was atrophying. I treated her with cupping, neuromuscular massage, active isolated stretching, and finished with taping. After the third or fourth visit, I suggested she should probably get an evaluation from a podiatrist. Why, because she wouldn't stop running and the treatment I could see was not going to solve this entirely or fast enough for her. We continued to treat her each week, she got orthotics, and is back running pain free. We did address more than the foot and calf. We had to take a look at posture, core, and the weakness of tibialis posterior. I treated with muscle energy for the navicular bone. All in all, because she would not' stop running, we saw her every week for 8 weeks and she is very happy running, running, running.

noreply@blogger.com (Debbie Roberts Seminars) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:48:00 +0000

This last week was a wonderful experience with a little girl who is 8 years old. She has been treating with my facility for the past year and we have effectively helped her with Tourette Syndrome. Her ticks have diminished and her mother states that the Mayo Clinic highly recommened this therapy for her. We have been doing a regular massage with Jinshin Jyutsu as an additional therapy. If you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us.