If Necessity is the Mother of Invention,
Pain may be the Mother of Prayer.
Lateral Epicondylitis ('tennis elbow') can cause severe pain.
One morning something really strange and completely unexpected happened to my body. I had made my morning coffee as usual, but when I went to drink it, I couldn't get my coffee cup to my mouth! My right arm would not work! I didn't know what was wrong, so I used my left hand to drink my coffee and hoped the problem would go away.
But it didn't just go away. It quickly got worse. Although there had been no pain that morning, by evening my neck and arm were aching and my elbow hurt to move. I could get it to do things, but the joint itself hurt with every effort. Everyday it hurt. Sometimes just a dull ache, sometimes a really bad stabbing pain. I knew that the most likely diagnosis was lateral epicondylitis, "tennis elbow" and I tried all the common home-remedies I could find. But nothing helped.
Eventually I lost all the strength in my right arm and I couldn't hook my bra or pull a t-shirt off over my head. And it hurt more and more for 3 months. Until one day I finally prayed and then received what I came to see as a "miracle" cure. It wasn't an instant miracle (although I've experienced those too). It was a miracle gift of knowledge, directed by my Higher Power I call God.
But let me tell you the rest of the story.
I remember the whole experience so well. The time was April 2004. The setting that morning was a campsite at Adventures Unlimited outside of Milton, Florida. I had graduated from massage school the previous summer and had spent the next 10 months traveling extensively through a lot of North America with a friend. While we entertained ourselves with new experiences and amazing vistas, we were actively looking for "our place in the sun" -- a place that we could call Home. After exploring the Canadian rockies, through beautiful Oregon and California, along both coasts of Mexico, across the U.S. from Texas to Tennessee, we eventually made our way to Northwest Florida. A friend had encouraged us to come see, telling us it was Paradise. We soon discovered that he was so right.
Although we were having a good time, there was a lot of stress involved in the traveling. Although we treated ourselves to massages and times of rest, for nearly 10 months we sometimes spent day after day in a vehicle, during which time I often spent hours journaling, both on paper and on my laptop. We had frequently challenged our physical abilities with exciting activities like whitewater rafting, hiking up and down glaciers, and crazy jet-boat rides. The day before the coffee-cup incident we had canoed down the river. My point here is that many activities had contributed to my problem, which had been gradually building up before becoming so apparent that morning.
As soon as possible, we bought a house in Pensacola and moved our belongings for the 3rd time that year. My elbow hurt to carry the heavy boxes. It hurt to use a mop and a shovel. My whole arm hurt even when I just sat there doing nothing. Googling the symptoms confirmed that I had a case of lateral epicondylitis, also known as tendonitis, or tennis elbow. The standard medical treatment for which is cortisone injections, which I did NOT want.
Being the earth-mother natural-healing practitioner that I am, I refused to go to a doctor until I felt like I had to. Instead I looked for natural remedies. I tried exercising it to strengthen the muscles. It hurt worse. I tried using a sling to rest it. And it still hurt. I applied ice and heat, and then alternated ice and heat. Nothing helped very long. I got several chiropractic adjustments and massages. Those felt good momentarily, but the pain was back within days if not hours.
Fortunately during this time, I was not having to go to work, which is a good thing, because there was no way I could have given massages. We enjoyed getting to know Pensacola and spent most ot the summer of '04 on the beautiful pre-Ivan beach at Fort Pickens National Park. Something about this beach feels like God's country to me. The sights and sounds of the silky sand and the aquamarine waves soothe my soul. I know I was Home.
My elbow had been hurting really badly for nearly 3 months and I was near the point of seeking traditional medical treatment. One day while I was snorkling in the beautiful clear water, I began praying about the pain I was having. "God, I know that You know what's wrong with my arm. And I know that You know that I need to be able to use my arm. And I know that You know what would fix my arm. If there is something I should be doing or not doing, would You please show me? Please heal me. Thank You."
I wish I could say God healed me right there on the beach. Or that I heard God give me a very supernatural answer. But I left the beach that day still feeling agonizing pain. When I got home, I got on the computer and did a search for "tendonitis" -- and there was my miracle, although I didn't know it at the time. What I saw among the typical medical sites, was a snippet from a site that said, "Trigger Points mimic many things, including tendonitis" [among other things].
The words "Trigger Points" caught my eye, because I recognized it as a massage term. I had taken a class in massage school regarding trigger points, but like most massage therapists, the teacher didn't really know much about them. (They are a quite newly discovered phenomonen, published in medical textbooks in 1999.) They had taught me that if I came across one, to push on it as hard as I could (which felt terrible to receive!), but nothing about how to find them.
The quote was taken from what has become my standard of practice, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, by Claire Davies. The book was written for the layman with the intention of treating one's own trigger points. So I got the book and ordered the tool he recommended. I was amazed to see that there were something like 30 possible trigger points in my arm, shoulder, pecs, and neck that could be contributing to elbow pain. When I hunted for them, I had them ALL!
I quickly began the very painful treatment of my own trigger points with the help of a self-treatment tool called a Thera-cane. Within 3 days, I could use my arm for the first time in months! Within one week, ALL my pain was GONE! It was so unbelievably simple to do that it sure seemed like a miracle to me.
That's when the light bulb went off. I realized that this stuff really works and that I had found the massage specialty that I could be dedicated to. I KNOW for sure that Trigger Point Therapy is an extremely effective treatment for muscle pain. I went on to learn as much as I could find about Trigger Point Therapy for pain relief and to use what I have learned in my massage practice.
I continue to do self-Trigger Point Therapy on myself nearly every night in my recliner with my best friend Thera-cane. I have learned how the TP referral patterns run and often use intuitive insight from my own body's responses in treating my patients. I have helped hundreds of people just like you and me with relief from terrible pain and troublesome aches. I have even taught many people how to treat their own pain with simple treatment methods.
But it didn't just go away. It quickly got worse. Although there had been no pain that morning, by evening my neck and arm were aching and my elbow hurt to move. I could get it to do things, but the joint itself hurt with every effort. Everyday it hurt. Sometimes just a dull ache, sometimes a really bad stabbing pain. I knew that the most likely diagnosis was lateral epicondylitis, "tennis elbow" and I tried all the common home-remedies I could find. But nothing helped.
Eventually I lost all the strength in my right arm and I couldn't hook my bra or pull a t-shirt off over my head. And it hurt more and more for 3 months. Until one day I finally prayed and then received what I came to see as a "miracle" cure. It wasn't an instant miracle (although I've experienced those too). It was a miracle gift of knowledge, directed by my Higher Power I call God.
But let me tell you the rest of the story.
I remember the whole experience so well. The time was April 2004. The setting that morning was a campsite at Adventures Unlimited outside of Milton, Florida. I had graduated from massage school the previous summer and had spent the next 10 months traveling extensively through a lot of North America with a friend. While we entertained ourselves with new experiences and amazing vistas, we were actively looking for "our place in the sun" -- a place that we could call Home. After exploring the Canadian rockies, through beautiful Oregon and California, along both coasts of Mexico, across the U.S. from Texas to Tennessee, we eventually made our way to Northwest Florida. A friend had encouraged us to come see, telling us it was Paradise. We soon discovered that he was so right.
Although we were having a good time, there was a lot of stress involved in the traveling. Although we treated ourselves to massages and times of rest, for nearly 10 months we sometimes spent day after day in a vehicle, during which time I often spent hours journaling, both on paper and on my laptop. We had frequently challenged our physical abilities with exciting activities like whitewater rafting, hiking up and down glaciers, and crazy jet-boat rides. The day before the coffee-cup incident we had canoed down the river. My point here is that many activities had contributed to my problem, which had been gradually building up before becoming so apparent that morning.
As soon as possible, we bought a house in Pensacola and moved our belongings for the 3rd time that year. My elbow hurt to carry the heavy boxes. It hurt to use a mop and a shovel. My whole arm hurt even when I just sat there doing nothing. Googling the symptoms confirmed that I had a case of lateral epicondylitis, also known as tendonitis, or tennis elbow. The standard medical treatment for which is cortisone injections, which I did NOT want.
Being the earth-mother natural-healing practitioner that I am, I refused to go to a doctor until I felt like I had to. Instead I looked for natural remedies. I tried exercising it to strengthen the muscles. It hurt worse. I tried using a sling to rest it. And it still hurt. I applied ice and heat, and then alternated ice and heat. Nothing helped very long. I got several chiropractic adjustments and massages. Those felt good momentarily, but the pain was back within days if not hours.
Fortunately during this time, I was not having to go to work, which is a good thing, because there was no way I could have given massages. We enjoyed getting to know Pensacola and spent most ot the summer of '04 on the beautiful pre-Ivan beach at Fort Pickens National Park. Something about this beach feels like God's country to me. The sights and sounds of the silky sand and the aquamarine waves soothe my soul. I know I was Home.
My elbow had been hurting really badly for nearly 3 months and I was near the point of seeking traditional medical treatment. One day while I was snorkling in the beautiful clear water, I began praying about the pain I was having. "God, I know that You know what's wrong with my arm. And I know that You know that I need to be able to use my arm. And I know that You know what would fix my arm. If there is something I should be doing or not doing, would You please show me? Please heal me. Thank You."
I wish I could say God healed me right there on the beach. Or that I heard God give me a very supernatural answer. But I left the beach that day still feeling agonizing pain. When I got home, I got on the computer and did a search for "tendonitis" -- and there was my miracle, although I didn't know it at the time. What I saw among the typical medical sites, was a snippet from a site that said, "Trigger Points mimic many things, including tendonitis" [among other things].
The words "Trigger Points" caught my eye, because I recognized it as a massage term. I had taken a class in massage school regarding trigger points, but like most massage therapists, the teacher didn't really know much about them. (They are a quite newly discovered phenomonen, published in medical textbooks in 1999.) They had taught me that if I came across one, to push on it as hard as I could (which felt terrible to receive!), but nothing about how to find them.
The quote was taken from what has become my standard of practice, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, by Claire Davies. The book was written for the layman with the intention of treating one's own trigger points. So I got the book and ordered the tool he recommended. I was amazed to see that there were something like 30 possible trigger points in my arm, shoulder, pecs, and neck that could be contributing to elbow pain. When I hunted for them, I had them ALL!
I quickly began the very painful treatment of my own trigger points with the help of a self-treatment tool called a Thera-cane. Within 3 days, I could use my arm for the first time in months! Within one week, ALL my pain was GONE! It was so unbelievably simple to do that it sure seemed like a miracle to me.
That's when the light bulb went off. I realized that this stuff really works and that I had found the massage specialty that I could be dedicated to. I KNOW for sure that Trigger Point Therapy is an extremely effective treatment for muscle pain. I went on to learn as much as I could find about Trigger Point Therapy for pain relief and to use what I have learned in my massage practice.
I continue to do self-Trigger Point Therapy on myself nearly every night in my recliner with my best friend Thera-cane. I have learned how the TP referral patterns run and often use intuitive insight from my own body's responses in treating my patients. I have helped hundreds of people just like you and me with relief from terrible pain and troublesome aches. I have even taught many people how to treat their own pain with simple treatment methods.
