Mom I’m in pain! I was listening to my daughter who lives hours away ,she was crying into the phone. The pain was unrelenting and she decided to go to a massage place to see if they could help. Unfortunately she fell into the hands of someone who did not  have experience in carefully handling the neck of someone who has had disc injuries and is having a flair up.

The massage therapist who worked on her  was too rough and even jerked my daughter’s neck. I’m not sure if she was attempting traction or an adjustment ,but  it felt like a violent jerk. Now, my daughter has a Licensed, very experience massage therapist for a Mom, so she knows how it should feel when a massage therapist is properly working out a kink in her neck and this was not it.

This filled her with a fear of being injured worse than when she arrived,  If I could I would ask every therapist to carefully consider how to handle a spine that’s in crisis. When scar tissue from a disc injury is reinjured,it may have been a sneeze or simply leaning back ones neck while yawning or stretching,it leaks some fluid out and causes extreme swelling and pain.

That pressure makes it impossible to have range of motion in the neck or whatever area the injury is in. It is counterproductive to try and force movement from the injured area. The way to handle a neck in spasm is to completely support it when the patient is trying to sit up or lie down. Icing it brings the fastest pain relief , a small bag of frozen peas fits the neck allowing a gentle curve is usually very effective.

Sometimes patient s that have an incident in the low back area need a steriod medrol dose pack to release the swelling quicker. The lesson here is try icing your neck first and give the area a  chance to reduce swelling before exercising or having someone handle the neck . If someone handles you incorrectly ,feel free to correct them quickly  and have them stop working on you. Do not tolerate work that is too painful or feels wrong.

Valentina Boonstra