good suggestions everyone; thank you.

i guess i hadn't realised that i am not a novice to PT. I have done the myo-fascial, the Edgelow and also cranial sacral, feldenkreis, osteophpathic and several others incl a nameless one invented and taught to my PT by a non-english speaking wmn in China who does the PT/massage primarily w/her feet. Oh, and then the one w/the asian bone doctor in SanFr chinatown, but that was more like a hard driving, pouncing massage--he'd stand on a chair above you and drop down on you and also pull my arms and hands out saying he was addressing the nerve problem of TOS, and then follow the massge for nerve pain with plasters of very smelly stuff --sorry I digress. (no appts but an interesting wait at the drop-in clinic filled w/no other Caucasians but hopefully an occasional bi-lingual person to help communicate). iAnd I've been looking for the name of one type of PT massage that worked for so-called tendonitus a long time ago but I never found a name. In this case the PT worked out adhesions in my arm in a painful way travelling up and down my arm while he had me rotate my wrist in various directions; that type gave me a few years of good results until the next bout of disfunction came along.

I did see an excellent Chiro 4 yrs ago who had his own really cool massage/PT technique but the appts were only a few minutes long. (Hendrickson method - hendricksonmethod.com). Then you could pay addl for a massage therapist to provide a longer treatment but the cost was quite high for all of it. And after being away from work for so long high out-of-pocket is a big drag.


My Qs are this: I'm on a Medicare plan and they allow only manipulation from a Chiropractor (no Xrays or other treatments). Do you think I'd find a PT who does ART or another solution?

I went to my initial 1st appt w/a traditional PT (trigger points, ...) and after something new to me hands-on massage like treatment she had me do something that seemed like a Feldenkreis lesson--stabilizing/strenthening the neck by having me look 20-25% of my limit in each direction and returning connected to breathwork. She also showed me a subtle core-strenthener exercise after she iced inside mouth at the jaw -- which reminded me of another type of PT/massage I had that comes from Florida (something like St John's if I recall). AND She provided some hands-on during the 1st visit which is good; often they limit the 1st visit to eval.

I was thinking I'd try this PT for the rest of the year as it's almost December and I haven't had ANY PT yet. What's good: I can get into see her easily; I have all my Medicare dollars to spend (1,700); and best of all this facility has only 3 PTs and the appts are always w/the same one and they are always 1 full HOUR. I've seen PT places changing over the years and no matter what the technique, I think that 1 HR hands on is worth a lot! It's too soon to eval the effectiveness but my headache went away for a few minutes before I flared and felt naeseous for a bit(typical for me to flare at first). What's bad is that Medicare only allows PT for new or acute conditions, the patient is s... OutOfLuck for chronic conditions.

so, thanks and more insights appreciated.