Carpal! Foiled again!

Oh yes, it can be so much fun to be in the soft-tissue massage biz. A new client asked for help with numbness at night in the thumb, forefinger and ring-finger.

As part of the overall massage, I did a bit of cross-fiber, compression and MFR on the pronater and supinator.
       

We massage therapists know those are the muscles that turn your palms up or down while doing tasks. For instance, if you are typing on a computer, your pronator is pulling your radius bone over the ulna bone – compressing a whole bunch of stuff in the forearm. When it gets too hot and too inflamed, your wrist hurts and/or your first three fingers go numb.

        

Elementary, to a massage therapist, but for some reason this is often unknown to the client.

     

The forearm muscles felt like bone, hard, adhesed, starved and chronically contracted. Massage strokes help separate the muscles and tendons, opening the area up to circulation.

       

Unknown to me at the time, this client had the testing for carpal tunnel syndrome a week earlier. A few days after her massage, she got the results. Her doctor told her she needed surgery.

“I told him I didn’t need to have surgery because I had a massage and my hands are fine now,” she said.

I felt a bit puffed up with such a nice compliment. Most important, though is proof of the power of doing hands-on therapy before invasive solutions.

The medical literature says carpal surgery works in about 30 percent of carpal diagnoses. Why? Most likely because the tests do not specifically confirm carpal tunnel syndrome but other myofascial problems in the forearm, triceps, even the neck.