Back2Life Blog

Pain in the neck. It’s so commanding isn’t it? You are sitting at your desk, stuck in traffic, pushing the buggy, trying to get your pillow right and that constant nagging ache in your neck won’t shift. You feel like your spine is trying to disappear into your head or that you are wearing your shoulders like a pair of earrings. Maybe the ache has even crept up to where your head meets your neck and is steadily throbbing in a vice-like headache. Or perhaps it’s starting to spread into your upper arms like a weird arm toothache or down between your shoulder blades. You’re not sure if you need a three-hour massage, a two-week holiday or a part exchange on your whole spine. Why is it so sore? You didn’t even “do” anything to it. Well there could be loads of different reasons and grabbing an osteopathy session will get to the bottom of it but what to do in the meantime? Here are some quick and easy tips to apply right now that may help lift that heavy, dragging pain in the neck until some expert hands can get to it.

When we hear the word prescription we tend to think of a slip of paper from a GP with an order for medicines. Actually, a prescription is the advice or recommendation of something beneficial. Osteopaths cannot prescribe medicines or drugs, but we do prescribe things like exercises. I had a woman in my clinic recently who is exhausted and emotional. She is trying to balance life with a new-born, fussy baby and a severely ill family member who she is responsible for. I offered tissues and reassurance that she is indeed doing a good enough job despite her feelings, but I know she desperately needs to take some time to gain some headspace. So, I issued a verbal prescription of twenty minutes to do something genuinely unrelated to her to-do list or to do nothing at all. Rather than feel guilty about it, she is to view it as medicinal.

Sometimes, I see a patient who has several different things going on and it is hard to know where to start. With experience (and the advice of a wise tutor ringing in my ears from many years ago) I have learned that getting my patient to breathe better is often a brilliant place to begin. This is in part academic and in part instinctive. Academically I know how important it is to get enough oxygen to tissues, especially tissues trying to heal from injury or whenever pain is involved. There is a reason birthing mothers are told so much about breathing! Movement of the diaphragm causes the lungs to inflate and deflate, but I also know that it massages the abdominal contents and helps digestion. Recently, an amplified MRI of somebody breathing caught my attention, and the rhythmic rise and fall of the diaphragm even seemed to perform a gentle massage of the brain by moving everything up and everything down. Breathing is clearly a whole- body activity.

Some things to remember when your pain seems stuck.

According to Wikipedia, the word, patient originally meant “one who suffers.” Well, I’m sure anyone who has paced the floor at 4am with sciatica or had their arm locked to their side with frozen shoulder would agree they are most definitely a patient. Look at the word patient another way and it describes being able to accept problems or suffering without being annoyed or anxious. Easier said than done right?

The reality is that despite living in this world of instant messaging, instant results and super-duper fast broadband speeds, the human body still needs time to respond and heal to injury even when helped along the way with some treatment.

So how can you be a more patient patient? Here are a few thoughts which may help.