Has anyone had any experience (+/-) w/ ESWT (extra-corporeal Shock Wave Therapy). The therapy is akin to a super-ultrasound (much like lithotripsy used for kidney stones) and I've read the Dornier EPOS literature on the theory which I understand but I'm really interested if anyone has had any experience w/ it.
I've been in PT for some months now to try to alleviate the unrelenting pain from the shortened tendons and muscle atrophy of my claw and hammertoes and the constant plantar fasciitis but thus far I'm not having a lot of success. My therapist suggested EWST as a help for the fasciitis to give me some relief, at least enough to make the other stretching exercises more beneficial. If anyone has some ideas please let me know, also what successes w/ long term PT and exercises to address the muscle atrophy and tendon problems.
I'm not ready to go under the knife to fix the problems just yet since I know fisrt hand the long term benefits of PT and exercise for serious back problems. Thanks very much
Alkymst

I forgot to mention massage in the previous post.

The proper massage for tightness isn't gentle. It generally works deep against the grain of the muscles and tendons to break up adhesions. I hope others here can give you specific types.

LizaJane is on vacation, but when she returns, she's had a lot of experience with different types of massage. You might send her a personal message for when she returns, and then share with us what you decide to do.

Sorry, I know nothing about ESWT, and am looking forward to learning more.

David,

Thank you for the info and suggestion - I'll contact LizaJane when she returns. If the type of massage you're describing is cross-tendon then I know of it. My therapist now has been doing it for several months for the tendons on my feet. It helps when she does it and generally for much of the remainder of the evening afterwards but the next AM I'm back to square one.
Years ago I had something similar for "tennis elbow" (racquetball) and the therapist then would almost lose feeling in her thumbs from the pressure she applied but it worked wonders - uncomfortable for me but broke up the adhesions and sped up the healing process. My understanding of ESWT is that it generates localized micro-trauma which is replaced w/ healthy and more flexible fibroblasts. In any event it sounded like it could be helpful for me. I'l talk to LizaJane and let you know what I do.
Thanks again.
Alkymst

I have cervical spine problem and my doctor who runs a health centre with a few physio's working for him and he is also a acupuncturists, the old chinese method and lazor acupuncture,and has diploma's of sports medicine all over the joint, so you would reckon he really knows his stuff.
He told me never attempt to do any stretches that affect my neck, without warming the area up first with heat for 10 minutes, i followed his advise and it worked, prior to this i went through about 6 physio's who all give me exercises to do, but they all aggravated my condition and made it a hell of a lot worse, none of them ever mentioned anything about applying heat for 10 minutes prior to the stretches, of course my spinal problem may be a completley differant type of issue than yours, but i thought it wouldn't hurt to let you know about my experiences.
This same doc is also a big believer in magnetic therapy as well, as i am too, i have been using them for many years, they have helped me with my neck problem and other health problems and i have helped a few family members with bad lower spine problems as well, they will not fix the problem but they can relieve a lot of the pain, only this morning i put some magnets on my brother that has a real bad back [lower spine problem] that was causing sciatica pain, pins & needles down one leg, i spoke to him 5 hours after i applied the magnets and he's telling me that the pain has lessoned and pins and needles are nearly gone already, he couldn't believe it after suffering so long, the longer you leave them on the better they work.
Liza Jane has a thread running about the magnets that i suggested may help her, and she has found relief .

Brian,
thanks for the thoughts, I too have serious back problems but mine are lumbar. I'll look into the magnet therapy!! Right now I just need some relief from the neuropathy PAIN - no sleep for days now and I'm exhausted but when I doze the pins & needles are superimposed on top of the freezing cold - never had this before. Nothing I'm doing helps and I'm about to go crazy.
alkymst

The best massage therapy that i have come across works on every muscle in the whole body is " Bowen therapy ", its only a very light massage and you hardly know their doing it to you, but the results after a 45 minute session is fantastic, they work on one area at a time then leave you alone for a few minutes to let that work on that area and so on.
Bowen therapy was created by a guy over here in OZ, called Tom Bowen, but its so popular its now practiced world wide these days, its well worth a thought if you have sore muscels.
I was having troubles with trying to go to sleep and i found that " Valerian " that we can buy in our supermarkets over here, and Magnesium relaxes the muscles, the combination of the two works for me every time.

Brian,
Thank you for the info about the Bowen therapy - I'm looking into it. A quick update on the ESWT. I talked w/ a group in the area that does the therapy - seems to be heavily geared to classical cases of plantar fasciitis. My situation resembles plantar fasciitis but not from heel spurs, rather, all of the tendons on the plantar surface of my feet are slowly contracting - my physical therapist did a lot of cross tendon massage and told me she could feel the tightness easily. I'm going to consider going for an evaluation just to see if there's anything they can do for me. One advantage of this particular approach is that the theapy is administered through the soft tissue in the sides of the feet. Apparently, similar types of therapy can be pretty painful if one hits a bone (guess that's why they use sedation and general anesthesia in these cases). In any event, turns out to be Anodyne therapy revisited w/ my insurance - both ESWT and Anodyne are considered to be experimental for PN and therefore not covered - not enough double blinded, placebo clinical trials. I'll still consider either or both if they help whether the insurance covers them or not.
I'll post again when I know more.
Alkymst