Auto Accident Injuries

I would like to emphasize strongly to all of you the impact and trauma of auto accidents more than the benefits of massage for accident victims.  I see patients with auto accidents.  They are the victims and survivors.  I feel very compassionate towards them because they didn’t do anything wrong, so they don’t deserve the pain and distress. 

The impact of a car accident on the body and mind can be enormous and long-term even if the accident is not serious.  Even after the physical injury is healed, you might experience chronic pain, even for years, if not treated soon after the accident. (I will explain more about chronic pain in technical terms soon.)  Not only physically, but you will be affected mentally and emotionally.  If the emotional trauma isn’t addressed early on, it might result in PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) and phobias especially if you experience a serious accident.  I’ve noticed that auto accident victims keep talking about their accident over and over.  It seems that they still have some emotion that hasn’t been quite resolved yet.  Listening to what they have to say during the massage session, I believe, is therapeutic and offers them a safe space to recover from their emotional strain.

This article recommends immediate care (such as with energy medicine), therapeutic dialogue, and regular massage for a year or longer for auto accident victims.  The author also recommends we reflect upon our unconscious behavior that could cause suffering for others.  Texting while driving is obviously dangerous as well as drinking and driving.  However, I believe accidents can happen in any other occasions when you are distracted while driving.  Just to name a few, checking messages on the phone, trying to answer the phone, being in a hurry, paying attention to the kids in the back seat, getting upset with other drivers, being stressed out and many more.  Have you done any of these?  Let us all focus on DRIVING, ONLY.   

Contrast Bath – a Hot Tub and a Swimming Pool

This is a side story of the post “Exercise as Part of Your Travel Plans.” 

After the great run in Savannah, a bonus treat was a hot tub at the hotel (I love hot tubs!).  They also had a (cold) swimming pool next to it, so I dipped myself up to the waist cooling the legs and hips until they got slightly numb.  And then, I soaked into the hot tub and massaged the calves, thighs and feet.  I repeated 4 times.  Although my calf had already been sore for a few days, that was gone, and other areas of the legs didn’t get sore next day either.

This is a type of hydrotherapy called a Contrast Bath alternating between hot and cold.  It is more beneficial and powerful than a heat application only.  I already emphasized the benefits of heat in the post “Moist Heat Packs,” but the primary effects of cold are:

• Reduces inflammation by vasoconstriction
• Relieves pain (Analgesic/Anesthetic) 
• Relaxes contracted muscles by decreasing the nerve and muscle response
• As the secondary effect, reverses the initial responses to return to the body’s normal, uniform, internal stability (homeostasis)

With the alternate hot and cold application, cold constricts the blood vessels, and the blood draws away (vasoconstriction), while heat helps expand the blood vessels, and new, fresh blood draws in (vasodilation).  This repetitive motion acts as a pump to promote great increase in circulation and relieve congestion.  If you apply it to the whole body, it benefits respiration and metabolism as well as circulation.  Because of the benefit of the homeostatic response (warming up to the usual body temperature), it is best to finish with the cold application.    

I now mainly use this hot and cold therapy as preventative maintenance for my hands and forearms; putting my hands into ice water and warm water alternately.  For anybody who works with their hands and fingers, it is highly recommended to avoid injuries.

Moist Heat Packs

I like using moist heat packs.  It’s not just warm, but moist.  When it’s moist, the heat penetrates more quickly and deeper.  Primary effects of heat are:

• Increased supply of oxygen and nutrients and elimination of waste (Vasodilation)
• Relieves pain (Analgesic) 
• Relaxes muscle fibers by lengthening
• Increased circulation
• Increased metabolism, respiration, and nerve and muscle response
• Moving blood toward the area treated (Derivation)
• Brings white blood cells to the area treated (Leukocytosis)

It also helps you calm down (relax the nervous system), so I always recommend it to my clients even at home whenever a heat application is appropriate.   

Here is the important information about when to use heat or ice as using it incorrectly aggravates the condition. 

Texting Thumb -- De Quervain's Tenosynovitis

I finally bought a smart phone this year and started typing using those tiny keypads (I was never a texter, either).  My thumbs didn’t work, so I used the index finger.  That made my arm and shoulder ache because I had to hold my arm in the air.  But, I wanted to avoid using thumbs because the thumb joint is one of the least stable joints in the body.  Naturally, the thumb injury is the one of the most common injuries for massage therapists. While in massage school, I was told: Save the thumbs for a special occasion.  

There must be many people, especially younger people, who suffer from overuse of their thumbs because of too much texting.  That is one of the common Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSI), De Quervain's Tenosynovitis (dih-kwer-VAINS ten-oh-sine-oh-VIE-tis), also called “texting thumb” among other names.  RSI happen when the same actions occur repeatedly over a period of time, which creates strain on tendons, muscles and joints.  In the case of texting thumb, two tendons running from the back of your thumb down the side of the wrist get swollen and irritated.  It’s also caused by lifting of children, typing, bowling, golf, tennis, fly-fishing, playing the piano, sewing and knitting.  If you have De Quervain's Tenosynovitis or not, you can test (Finkelstein's test).