This week we’ve been covering a recent case. Here’s what you missed yesterday.
To highlight, we identified that Matt’s symptoms resolved with backwards bending and twisting away from the painful side (turning left). What we also learned was that he had an MRI that showed a few herniated discs and degenerative changes (aka “arthritis”). His doctor advised him from exercising and doing activities until pain is resolved (which has been going on for weeks already).
Based on the objective information from yesterday, we can conclude the following: degeneration is a normal process of aging especially at the age of 79/80. Usually degeneration and arthritis will get worse with backwards bending, but he was feeling better with this stretch. Turning away from the side of pain may also flare up arthritis in the back, but it was actually really helpful for him.
We suspected that his body lacked turning to the left (because of his vision). So the interventions provided for him during the first two sessions were a standing back bend and turning away from the side of symptoms. What was the specific tissue that was irritated? It could be a disc, it could have been a facet. However, the MRI did its job, it ruled out cancers and fractures. Now it was time to figure out the cause of the pain. I suspected the cause of pain was due to the fact that his body needed movement variety. And that was our intervention of the day. We also focused on reducing sitting time for now.
We achieved a 80% resolution of symptoms in about 11 days. He was able to return to driving without the production of pain for at least 2 hours.
Action steps:
Focus on what provides you relief. Stop doing the activities that cause/increase your pain.
