Pain

I've continued to experience pain in my neck, upper back and right arm - all mainly on the right side.

I had picked up some massage tools, one from Goodwill that aggressively massages the neck and any other smaller areas like the feet, hands, arms, calves, which is a Homedics Tool.  And I bought the Acu Masseur, which you can do self massage and get to trigger points.

With the Homedics tool, that really was way too much for my body and though it did work deeply in my muscles and put me in deep sleeps, it also aggravated the area of my neck because it was already aggravated and inflamed.

By further using the Acu Masseur, it further aggravated this as I used this tool a bit on the aggressive side, wanting desperately to get any trigger points out and to massage those areas.

All this time, I've gone to the chiropractor and physical therapy (PT).  The PT started me out on exercises Monday after the prior visits only doing passive therapy and stretches, massage.  She gave me orders to continue the exercises at home, which were easy, but when you do exercises, the areas you are working out get increased blood flow, therefore, increasing inflammation in those areas already inflamed.

When I went to both the chiropractor and PT on Monday, I wasn't feeling so great, but instead of feeling better after both visits, I actually felt worse and continued to get worse.  Yesterday I saw the chiropractor and he was a bit upset at the PT for starting me on exercises so soon and for me being so aggressive with my treatment.

He told me that the areas we are working on have been inflamed for awhile and need time to heal, reduce and get rid of inflammation.  I need to give it time.  So, today when I go to PT, I will tell the PT that I will not be doing the exercises for a couple weeks and just do passive therapy, which is the electrical stimulation, stretching, massage type stuff.  My body seems to feel better with the electrical stimulation.  I wish I had one of those Tens units at home.

I would love this one by Healthmate Tens, which is more on the pricier side.  They have them as low as less than $10, but I wonder if they can give me the power I need and how long those electrode pads last.  Maybe I should get something in the middle of the road.  I'll check with the PT to see if my health insurance will provide one and if they won't, I'll go ahead and purchase one.

So, for now, I'm just going to back to using my Homedics Massage Mat (the link is to something similar I have with Homedics but not by Homedics), icing, taking plenty of Alleve, gentle stretching and rest.  And, hopefully one way or another, get a Tens unit.

Just because I feel good doesn't mean I should've started exercising yet those areas.

Yesterday I also worked on trigger points in the scalenes, which are muscles in the neck.  I believe I have some trigger points here and need to use some massage oil or something to get into there better.  It's a little bit scary to work this area as it feels like I'm impinging on some nerve, but that's how it's supposed to be.  That did give me some relief last night so I could get some sleep, which I did and had not been the past 3 prior nights.