at least for me that is. I have been going to a physical therapist for over 4 weeks now. First time, she just checked me out, looked over to see what she need to do. Game plan - bottom of head, neck, shoulders need loosened. (These happen to also be tender spots for those with fibromyalgia). Then my middle and lower back will need extensive stretching and loosening. My glutes are in a bad way. I knew it was big, but now I know it is big and bad...lol. Really though, she said that I have knots in my gluts that are so tight and that is were most of my pain is coming from. The sacrum is feeling the pain and therefore when I adjust to ease the pain, my hips and pelvic area are compensating the pain now. - Initial 1 phase over.

Phase 2 - stretching, stretching, deep massage, more deep message and more stretching. End of phase 2 - except for the fact that I went home and cried so hard. Soaked my full body in Epsom salt, took some vicodin and said I would never go to her again.

Phase 3 - explained to her what happened once I left. She also received my records from my back specialist who felt I needed surgery. So this time she says we are going to do something different. So she lays me on the bed, plays some soft music and proceeds to put her hand on my stomach and under my lower back. She just sits it there and every once in a while she will gently push in and up, but I wasn't even noticing it until she pointed it out. So she repeated this through out my whole body (yes even my glutes, where is a guy when your glutes need touched...lol) then she was done. This lasted about an hour. I was soooo sleepy. End of Phase 3

After that phase I got home about 5:30, I feel asleep right on my bed and didn't move until the next morning. It was wonderful. I have insomnia so I was delighted to get real sleep.

Phase 4 - something. She tells me that my body is way to fragile at this point to do anything to it, but soothe it. She is slowly trying to pull down my sacrum move my hips towards the pelvic area. I think my hips are not lining up right. The are pulling toward the sacrum and not the pelvic area.

Any way the thing she did in phase 3/4, she calls a cranial/sacrum. I haven't researched it yet, but I did want to let those who might be contemplating surgery to look into this first. She also said that if I did end up having surgery, I would come back to her and have this done. It relieves the body of the stresses and toxins. I was never a big believer when people say that, but the last two times I have went to her, I have cried, not uncontrollably, just tears run down my face. And it feels good to release it all at once without my heart hurting.

I hope this will help someone. If anyone has any further information or experiences about this, I would like to hear them.

M