Something Special About Mother's Day

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

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

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.

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.