My students and me visiting some girls with bad backs
Ok so today our first visit was to Mio and she has been in severe pain for the last seven days . Pain so bad that she has lived for the most part on her back . Today she is feeling a bit better so we tried to get her moving in a way that would reverse the damage caused by her disk herniation . She is still in the inflammation stage so being gentle and careful and reassuring her were the order of the day.
The fact we had an MRI was helpfull but honestly most of us have herniated disks and are asymptomatic . In this case Mio is symptomatic but it changes nothing . We should be aware of flexing our lumbar spine repetitivley we do it enough just by sitting badly or giving in to gravity . Educate back pain clients to reverse the damage .
Teaching her to use her diaphragm to breathe and get her out of her scalenes and upper chest breathing strategy will go a long way to firing the reflexive core and changing her over to a more parasympathetic state .
Both Nicci and Dhalia were very good at making Mio feel loved and secure ( bed side manner is sooooo important in these cases ) Unless you have ever had bad back pain it is hard to understand how scared and in pain these girls are . You have to tell them that as soon as the inflammation goes down they will feel better . The next step is rehab and then yes life can return to normal .
It is interesting to note that when Galen lowers her left leg to the floor she has pain in her right lower back . When we asked her to stand on her right leg she experienced pain in the right lower back .We think she has the same symptoms as Mio . A posterior lateral disk herniation to the right . Any time she has to use her right extremity to stabilise she has pain .
Thank You to Mio and Galen for allowing us to share their pain , it is not pleasant but we can learn from it .
As always you should always give credit where credit is due and this type of treatment ( reverse posturing ) comes from a great physicall therapist Robin Mckensie .
