Therapeutic Massage for Recovery After Car Accidents
This recent review about recovering from a car accident came after two months of consistent work. Working with people who suffer after vicious car accidents is one of the most gratifying things we do, especially when the results are this drastic. Oftentimes, clients survive the accident, only to be left with months or even years of lingering neuromuscular issues. Unfortunately, many people with these chronic issues get sent to pain management clinics where the only solutions come in a prescription bottle. Now before the complaints chime in, we’re all big fans of better living through chemistry – where appropriate and for appropriate lengths of time. Read below to see what this client said:
“Over the last 5 years, I have tried chiropractor’s, physical therapy, personal trainers and multiple specialist based on my car accident and previous sports injury’s. Nothing seemed to work to help me get better, even with medications, only would just keep me barely functioning. After one visit with Cameron, I instantly knew this was different. I felt better instantly. I felt better until my next treatment instead of reverting back to my original issues. Between visits, my body would shift where the pain was.”
“Started with my back, then neck, feet, etc (apparently your brain can only focus on one issue at a time). Each visit, he would fix an issue to the point I don’t have daily pain. I recommend going at least once to see the results for yourself. After a 2 months, I have gained mobility and have reduced my medications in half (plan on getting completely off by the end of the month). I had tried to reduce my medications before with no success. This time is different. This isn’t just a massage, this is an experience to get your life back. This gives you hope when everything else has failed. The knowledge and passion Cameron has to helping others is why I recommend him to anyone that is in need.”
Reducing medications is something we love to see happen. Many clients go back to their primary care physician or specialist and ask to cut back. The docs are almost always happy to see this in their patients as well. I mention this because in the current state of healthcare, many people assume their doctors want to keep them on drugs forever. In reality this is not the case. Most doctors don’t want to see you in pain so they do their part and prescribe. They’re almost universally happy to see you getting better. That’s why most doctors became doctors in the first place.
But back to our client. He was referred by another client and friend of ours who asked if we could help. The day of his first appointment, he walked in upright but stiff as a board. When a person loses the ability to twist the spine, the rest of the body stiffens to compensate. Essentially, walking turns more into a straight line shuffle and you lose the bounce in your step. After a serious car accident, the recovery process often demands a steep reduction in physical activity and the body reduces normal ranges of motion as it works to repair itself.
So in our first session, we work through the hips to help unlock the lower back. I worked through the spinal erectors and spent extra time and attention ensuring we are improving the ability to twist. Our client had stopped going to the chiropractor a month or two before our visit because with his muscles so tight, he could no longer be adjusted. We ended the session with some lower back stretches, which were met with satisfying pops in both directions. Keep in mind, this is not an adjustment, nor is it the goal. But sometimes you’ll have a spontaneous realignment and we will happily accept them.
Halfway through session two and we were already moving on to the neck. The client said he had always had the back pain since the car accident and after his initial recovery, but it was so improved by this point that he had notice pain and stiffness in his neck. This is an extremely common phenomena but easily explained. When one part of your body hurts really bad every day, it’s the only thing you notice. As mentioned in the review, our brains really only pick up the strongest pain signal. When that signal turns off, it turns its attention to the next thing.
We’ve spent the rest of our sessions working through the muscles of the neck and shoulder girdle, around the scapulas, the feet, and most recently dealing with a case of burning pain in the upper arm. During car accidents, it’s common to have one or both hands on the steering wheel. Our client had his left hand on the wheel when he got hit. The impact causes the arm and scapula to engage and brace against the moving forces, which often leads to strong trigger points in the tricep, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, teres minor/major, or the rhomboids. The burning sensation in his tricep was actually stemming from an infraspinatus trigger point.
Our client is already down to twice a month treatments and taking half the medication he used to. I anticipate it won’t be much longer before he can go to once a month and then as needed for his sessions. We don’t want to see people for the same thing forever. We really want you to recover from your car accident or sports injury and move on with your life. That’s what we’re here for.
Recovering after a serious car accident can seem impossible. This individual had been in daily pain for five years. By the time he gets to us, worn out and at the end of his rope, expectations aren’t high. When the results come, they seem like magic. He even refers to what we do as voodoo magic. But the truth is much less remarkable. What we do is entirely based on how the muscles of our body work. How they move the skeleton around. How they support the body. Thats’s really it. The better you know it, the more effective you can be for your clients. And there’s still so much more to learn!
If you’re in the Pinellas County area and looking for a place to recover from a car accident or sports injury, call or schedule an appointment today!
If you’d like to read about other client success stories, try this one next: https://massagealchemist.com/blog/client-case-study-treating-pain-and-numbness-in-the-upper-arm