Winning Hands Massage

WHY DO I DO IT?

I got into massage/bodywork training in January 2001 to learn what I could for pain management for my immediate family because my family (daughter, son-in-law) and I all have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). I have been involved with the CEDA support group for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and have been writing about various massage and bodywork modalities for the group. I am also a columnist for EDS Today, a newsletter about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and have written articles for Pulse, the newsletter for AOBTA, the American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia.

I went through the torment of watching my daughter fall apart physically, and neither knowing why nor what could be done to stop it. She recently turned 32. I watched her deteriorate from the bright- eyed little kid with a love for dance and a dream of ballet, only to see her have to give up that dream. And then progressively go downhill from increasing aches, pains and dislocations to eventually needing leg braces, canes and ultimately a wheelchair.

For some reason, I have had it in the back of my head for years that massage had to offer, if not a cure, at least some type of relief for her. At the end of 2000, I resigned the position I had with a company in Alaska and moved to Seattle. Within a month of being down here, I checked out and then enrolled in the massage program at Ashmead College. My sole objective at the time was to learn as much as I could before the burden of working full time with a full class load caught up with me and flunked me out. I took it one term at a time. And yes, I did make it all the way through.

Back to my daughter. For fifteen years, she stood with both feet laterally rotated to about 45 degrees each and with such severe pronation that her little toes didn’t touch the floor. She had also been told by a total of four chiropractors, four osteopaths and two physical therapists during that time that she had a fused left hip. She was not only not getting better, she was getting worse. She was finally diagnosed with EDS at about the age of 20. All this did was help explain what was happening to her. It didn’t help provide any relief.

During my second term, we had to do a project where we did a series of six massages over an eight-week period on one person so we could monitor and assess changes. I chose her, not for her legs and feet, but because she had walked into her van mirror and messed up her back. It was pure coincidence that at the same time we had our first introduction to myofascial release. A quick assessment showed that she had serious fascial restrictions in her back so I decided to just practice the technique on her as part of the project. During the fourth massage, we were both shocked to discover while doing some hip mobilization that her left hip was NOT fused. I was getting movement out of it. At the end of the fifth session, she came back downstairs while I was filling out my paperwork and said “Dad, look at my feet. You’ve done more for me in a month than ten doctors in fifteen years.” Her feet were straight and her little toes touched the floor. She went back upstairs. I spent the next fifteen minutes alternating between pure rage that she had to go through what she had for so long and for no reason, and simply sitting there crying my eyes out from the pure joy of having been able to help her. Her feet are still straight today and her little toes still touch the floor. Her problem was not a fused hip and never had been. Her problem was a severe fascial restriction in her lower thoracic and upper lumbar back. Once the restriction was released, her legs and feet returned to a normal position. As info, she has long since gotten rid of the braces and the wheelchair is gathering dust in the garage.

That was my introduction to the power for positive change inherent in bodywork. Let’s just say it changed both our lives.

After graduating from massage school, I became sensitized to energy work and shifted my continuing education emphasis toward the energetic modalities. In large measure, this was because I self-taught myself basic acupressure at the end of the massage school program and within three weeks had cured a long-standing tension headache problem. After 35 years of averaging 100-150 Tylenol or Aleve a month for brutal headaches, I suddenly realized that I simply wasn’t getting headaches anymore. I took 8 Aleve in July of 2002 for broken rib pain. I have taken none since, for anything, in almost four years. In addition, anything else I tried it on, worked. That spurred me to learn more about it.

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