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positivevibes
204 Posts |
 Posted - 06/22/2008 : 13:35:05
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I came across a website that talks about trigger points and massaging the areas with a tennis ball on the wall or while lying on the floor. So I tried it -- massaging my glutes and the side of my hips with the tennis ball. I did feel pain at various points but figured I had hit a trigger point and I'd "massage it out."
Now my butt is sore as hell, as if I bruised it. I don't see any bruises but it hurts a lot. I'm so pissed at myself for causing myself more pain (even though it was unintentional)! If I'd had any idea that doing the tennis ball massage would result in this sort of "bruise pain" I never would have tried it!
Arrrrrgh!!!!
I guess in the future I'll stick to the much gentler and more benevolent foam roller if I feel that I need a massage. I know that this pain will go away in a few days, but I'm still really angry about it!
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You are not your mind; you are not your thoughts. The incessant mental noise [of your thoughts] creates a false mind-made self that causes fear and suffering and prevents you from connecting with your true self and living in the Now. - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now |
Edited by - positivevibes on 06/23/2008 12:34:47 |
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bhushan
India
16 Posts |
Posted - 06/22/2008 : 21:55:56
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Ohh! I did the same to me when few months ago when I tried doing some trigger point therapy on my neck (to reduce pain in the hands) and ended up with severe pain and burning all night . Apply some warm water and it should be fine soon.
There are lot of nerves/blood vessels and if you are not careful you might end up massaging them instead of the muscles!
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positivevibes
204 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2008 : 12:43:24
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Yesterday my butt was sore all day (took NSAIDs to help with the pain).
This morning I was stretching in bed before I got up and I felt "it" -- a muscle in my lower back was complaining. I wouldn't say that it spasmed -- it just felt really tight (that "brittle" feeling -- it's hard to describe, but that's how it feels to me).
So today, more NSAIDs and careful movement. And I'm yelling at my brain to STOP IT. There is no reason why my muscles should hurt from massaging a tennis ball on my butt, even if my butt is bruised! I had massaged a bit over the SI joints (where I usually get back pain), so I'm wondering if maybe I didn't irritate something.
Of course I'm going on vacation in 8 days. Why does this stuff always seem to happen to me before I go on vacation, sending me into a panic about my back? What the hell??!!! I was basically fine for several weeks (a little vague discomfort but nothing to do with my back muscles). Now this. Dammmit. I'm sure that whatever "it" is (oxygen deprivation brought on by stress is my guess) it will clear up in 8 days. In the mean time, I have to deal with it.
You may wonder what stress I've been under. In a nutshell, one daughter had a birthday, another daughter had a graduation and then I had to send her off on her school trip to NY for a week (she has peanut allergy and I had to do a lot of stressful work to make the trip "safe" for her). The week she was away in NY, my husband's mother was in the hospital because she choked and almost died and was in ICU -- the docs weren't sure if she'd make it. My husband during that week was away from home for business (unavoidable). So I was here alone with the other daughter, "holding down the fort," getting calls from the doc at the hospital at 6:30 am. waking me up. So....it was a stressful week and perhaps it's catching up with me.
Anyway, stupid tennis ball, stupid trigger point crap....WHAT WAS I THINKING? I wish I'd just left my back alone. I had no idea it would make me hurt worse. I figured "a little massage, how could it be bad?" Grrrrrrrrrr!
Today I plan to re-read one of Dr. Sarno's books, read The Power of Now some more, and try to break my negative/panicked thought cycle.
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You are not your mind; you are not your thoughts. The incessant mental noise [of your thoughts] creates a false mind-made self that causes fear and suffering and prevents you from connecting with your true self and living in the Now. - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now |
Edited by - positivevibes on 06/23/2008 12:48:06 |
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la_kevin
USA
351 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2008 : 20:30:09
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I did the tennis ball crap when I first came to this board almost a couple years ago.
Big mistake. It 'released' stuff for a few hours, but the TMS was always there the next day.
It's equivalent to a massage that's about it. It doesn't get at the mechanism of what would cause someone ILLOGICAL chronic pain and tightness in otherwise healthy muscle tissue.
I'd say throw the Tennis ball away, unless you get some crazy back spasm that causes you to literally lock up and not be able to move.
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"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans"- John Lennon |
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armchairlinguist
USA
1397 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2008 : 21:59:13
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quote:
Why does this stuff always seem to happen to me before I go on vacation, sending me into a panic about my back? What the hell??!!!
Sounds like you are having a currently stressful time, so that may be it, but vacations for some TMSers tend to bring up stress issues. Isn't it a much better distraction when you also get to worry about it ruining your vacation?
I've gotten the bruised feeling from over-massaged trigger points before (if you get that feeling you overdid it a bit -- harder is not always better) but it shouldn't be causing all that other pain. Given your stress levels, I'm thinking it's grabbing onto that location and doing it right now because all the better that you're thinking about your vacation...
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It's not 100% belief that's required, but 100% commitment. |
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scottjmurray
266 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2008 : 01:25:34
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stupid trigger point work. i wasted a year on that crap. now i just yell and complain.
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i'm not s#!t.
i'm champagne. |
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positivevibes
204 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2008 : 13:42:37
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Feeling a lot better today (yesterday was awful...I actually had to take some Ativan to calm me down). I'm taking a combination of my Rx NSAID alternating with Tylenol (I have Hydrocodone but since the pain wasn't THAT bad I didn't want to go down that route).
Anyway, after a good night's sleep and all the painkillers rattling around in my bloodstream, my back feels much better today. Not perfect, but "getting there." I think I'll be out of the woods with this in a few days.
No more freaking tennis balls for me! And I'm going to be careful with those foam rollers, too.
I wonder if we TMS people have more sensitive trigger points than other people? I was re-reading Healing Back Pain yesterday (which helped me A LOT) and was wondering -- if we TMS people already have certain points that are supposedly more sensitive than a "normal" person's, than wouldn't stimulating those points bring on more pain that it would in a "normal" person?
Could that be why, many times, my back hurts WORSE after I get a massage?
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You are not your mind; you are not your thoughts. The incessant mental noise [of your thoughts] creates a false mind-made self that causes fear and suffering and prevents you from connecting with your true self and living in the Now. - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now |
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armchairlinguist
USA
1397 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2008 : 18:24:29
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Trigger points are physically sensitive when they are activated to produce pain. IMO they are usually activated by either TMS or acute injury. So yes, people with TMS have sensitive trigger points, but it's because they have TMS, not the other way around.
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It's not 100% belief that's required, but 100% commitment. |
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la_kevin
USA
351 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2008 : 21:18:37
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When I was at my height of TMS , I was getting daily Korean "stripping' techniques done on my trigger points, nerve exists, Ischium tubes, Sacro Ischium exits, Psoas muscle stripping, etc. I had knots on my calves that stood out like cancerous lumps on my legs, because of severe muscle tightening and not activity.
My TMS was literally gripping my body so bad it was showing. My special Doctors which worked on me like a guinea pig every day, pushed on points with their thumbs and fingers while commenting "Holy crap you're a mess, I can literally feel you are filled with scare tissue".
After a month of working on me straight, the "scar tissue" got less tender, I agree. But there was still pain. Now there could have been scar tissue from my body being toxic from no exercise or activity at all, and TMS wrecking me daily, but I think it was mostly the "pain body" inside me taking over.
You couldn't touch me that hard without me grunting in pain. That is a symptom of TMS. It was only when I started studying TMS , that any real pain improved.
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"Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans"- John Lennon |
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Pissed at myself - trigger point massage hurt me!
