For others who are still in pain after surgery. The thing which has helped me most--more than physical therapy, pilates, and more than pain meds, is Feldenkrais therapy. I am improving--I don't want my post to make it look like I am not--and all the improvement is attributable to this treatment. There's a feldenkrais website explaining something about what these folk do, but mainly, it is a muscle re-integration treatment.

They say, or at least my practitioner says, that it's possible to teach the brain patterns of movements based on the reflexive way we move as children, and that teaching the brain these movements reminds it it does NOT have to use other muscles while doing tasks.

For isntance, my back was all gripped when I went into treatment today. The practitioner found that my head was slightly tipped to the left, making my eyes look more right to keep straight ahead. This was what she noticed. I noticed it once she asked me to attend to my head. A session spent with me lying on the table and her making very very gentle movements of my body from side to side, while I sometimes moved my eyes as if I were turning, and sometimes the opposite was the extent of what she did.

When I got off the table, I was straightened out again. But besides that, I had more rotation to the left, which had been limited, and the gripping was gone. She then had me focus on noticing things about my body while it was sitting and walking painlessly after the treatment. Where was my chest in relation to my pelvis? Where was my weight when I changed where I was looking. It was obvious then that I could self-correct. If my back is hurting, check where my shoulders or head are, and see if I can make adjustments which allow me to sit with less effort.

This process is beginning to really make sense.

Unlike physical therapy and pilates which focussed on stengthening the core muscles, this work is focussed on getting those muscles to STOP working when they are not needed. And helping the body align so it needs to use fewer muscles to do any particular job.

I highly recommend this as part of a package of pain-treatment for back pain, including post surgical.


LizaJane