Your experiences with injury in your bodywork practice

[...confused...]

Hello,

My name is Lauriann Greene, and I'm the author of the book Save Your Hands! Injury Prevention for Massage Therapists. I am currently writing the 2nd edition of the book, and I'd like to include some quotes from massage therapists and bodyworkers who have experienced symptoms and/or injury as a result of their hands-on work. I'm also interested in hearing what you do to protect yourself from injury and how successful those methods have been and any successful methods you've found to treat symptoms and/or injury. Students are welcome to talk about their experiences with symptoms and injury during their schooling.

I'm very interested to hear about your experiences - I will not print anything you say here in my book without first asking your permission in writing, so feel free to share your experiences here - I'm sure that everyone in the Forum will appreciate hearing about them. Thank you very much, I look forward to hearing from you!

 

[Bethany]

When I first started doing massage I didn't give any thought to preserving my career. I didn't get worked on and I didn't limit my work. After doing 20-30 deep tissue massages a week, I quickly began to have issues with my forearms, wrists, and thumbs. It was a scary experience that I don't wish to repeat. I quit that job and went through many others that over worked you in the same way. I began getting regular massage work for myself, stayed diligent about stretching/body mechanics, and I began to limit the number of massages that I did in a day. Since then I haven't had any major issues with my body.
I feel very strongly about all therapists taking care of themselves. I don't want to see any therapists have to quit massaging as a result of something they could have prevented.

 

[ets_bond_trader]

Your experiences with massage-related injury

Dear Masthera,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience. You mention a couple of points that I think many therapists can relate to - stating out doing too many massages, getting injured, and then choosing a more moderate schedule that is easier on your body. Your story can help others who are just starting out to realize that injury is preventable if you take good care of your body and pay attention to not overloading yourself (among other things), and that it is possible to recover from injury, particularly when you make changes to the elements that caused the injury.

I would love to use what you said in the book - I hope you'll send me a private email to [email protected] so we can discuss further. Thank you!

 

[t j]

And in thanks for playing along, all members of the forum that have the 1st edition of the book will receive the 2nd absolutly FREE!

Thanks for your generosity! I knew I liked you!

 

[?Ms.LaLa?]

HI Lauriann,

If you haven't already read this thread, check it out. It contains a lot of great ideas therapist-to-therapist on injury prevention:

http://www.massageplanet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2456&start=0

 

[Pompal 09.]

And in thanks for playing along, all members of the forum that have the 1st edition of the book will receive the 2nd absolutly FREE!

Thanks for your generosity! I knew I liked you!

THat cold weather is gettin' to ya' buddy!

 

[Tarou]

Injury Posts

Dear Bliss - thanks for the link, I will definitely check that out!

Still hoping to hear from more of you on this important topic.

Best regards, Lauriann

 

[Tigger]

Lauriann,

Hope that you will continue to pop by our forum even after your research has concluded... I am sure that you have many insights on the profession for our membership.

As for work related injury... *thinks*

Within about 2 years of finishing MT school I injured my right wrist putting the massage table in my trunk... does that count as a work related injury? : I did get chiropractic for it... but it's a chronic injury that will bother me off and on down to this day...

My Chiropractor told me once he thought my wrist pain at one point was CTS and BPS caused by too much massage scheduled too close together at my salon job and of course carrying my table and linens to my outcall clients. (39 lb massage table and about 20 lb linens/oils, etc)
I received some chiropractic and massage for it and with a little slower schedule at the salon... and more time between clients I was better within a couple of weeks.

But actually the work related injury that tends to bother me the most wasn't to my hand... it was my left ankle. : I was leaving the home of one of my regular clients and ended up falling on her deck, knocked the wind out of me, badly sprained my ankle, ended up with the massage table on my back... (The client is an MD so at least we were fairly sure it wasn't broken!) But it continues to be an issue, as it was repeatedly re-injured during the healing process.

Other than that I think most of my injuries have been fairly temporary. Addressed with a massage or two, or helped out by a visit to the chiropractor, some essential oils, perhaps an ice pack or two...

Is that the kind of info you were looking for?

 

[<3Clapton<3]

Laurianne - I'm so interested in the 2 discussions you've started here, but before I engage in them I have to admit that I have a reservation about your work, which is: have you ever gone back to work as a massage therapist? I know you trained as an MT 14 years ago and suffered injuries during training, which (if I recall correctly from your book) made you stop practicing altogether. And since that time you have been publishing and teaching about injury prevention.

I ask because I have simply met too many MT-trained people who never really developed a practice but now make their living advising massage therapists how to go about things. Maybe this happens in all professions, but my guard is always up in this kind of situation. It appears -- well, I'll just be honest and say it, it looks like yet another case of a person who does not really want to *do* massage therapy, but likes to hang around MTs and make a living giving advice without the requisite personal experience. (Mostly it's marketers and "coaches," but I have even had a few teachers who fell into this category.)

I know you don't owe me an explanation of your motives or experience. I also understand that compiling the injury experiences of other MTs is valuable and helpful to our profession. But I know I am not the only therapist who has wondered about this, and I would love it if you would be willing to chat us up a bit about it.

 

[Nnifer]

Ah, now I remember an incident. I was moving my stuff into my new office 3 years ago, trying to carry my reception table through the door, and something slipped so I wound up holding hte table by one leg by one hand. It was a steelcase office table, kind of heavy. My wrist hurt for quite a while after that. Still "needs to pop" when mousing or sometimes while giving a massage.

 

[Rachel <3]

Work-related injury

Lauriann,

Hope that you will continue to pop by our forum even after your research has concluded... I am sure that you have many insights on the profession for our membership. YES, I'LL BE HAPPY TO AS TIME PERMITS.
As for work related injury... *thinks* Within about 2 years of finishing MT school I injured my right wrist putting the massage table in my trunk... does that count as a work related injury?

My Chiropractor told me once he thought my wrist pain at one point was CTS and BPS

But actually the work related injury that tends to bother me the most wasn't to my hand... it was my left ankle.

Quote fixed~Masthera

Yes, this is very good feedback, thanks! Your wrist injury definitely qualifies as "work-related" injury. Carrying a massage table around is a part of work life for many massage therapists, and it has its risks - in fact, we'll be discussing those risks in the 2nd edition of Save Your Hands. Your ankle is another issue - definitely not a "work-related injury" in the true sense of the word, although it happened on the job.

What concerns me in your post, though, is that you sought treatment from chiropractor, and that the chiropractor "diagnosed" you. I don't believe that diagnosis is within the scope of practice of a chiropractor. It is always best to see a healthcare practitioner who has the necessary training to rule out other types of pathology and properly diagnose musculoskeletal disorders. If your wrist continues to bother you off and on, you may need further medical treatment, and you need to identify what you may be doing in your work that is causing your symptoms.

Thanks for sharing your story - I'm surprised there haven't been more posts on this subject. Is this still an issue that few people want to talk about? I hope not!

 

[code man]

Why do I write about injury prevention?

Laurianne - have to admit that I have a reservation about your work, which is: have you ever gone back to work as a massage therapist? I ask because I have simply met too many MT-trained people who never really developed a practice but now make their living advising massage therapists how to go about things. Maybe this happens in all professions, but my guard is always up in this kind of situation. I know you don't owe me an explanation of your motives or experience. I also understand that compiling the injury experiences of other MTs is valuable and helpful to our profession. But I know I am not the only therapist who has wondered about this, and I would love it if you would be willing to chat us up a bit about it.

I'm actually glad you asked this question, because yes, it has been asked before (and usually in not as tactful a manner as you have asked it - thank you for that).

Yes, this happens in all professions, but somehow there is a resistance in the massage profession to the idea that someone can graduate from massage school and have a role in the profession other than actually doing massage. Luckily, I have been applauded by many more massage therapists for doing the work I do - taking my own painful experience with massage-related injury and using it to help others - than I have been criticized by others. I didn't give up massage by choice - I got too injured to practice (still am). This happens frequently to massage therapists - two other people in my class had the same experience.

I have often seen an attitude that I would call "false pride" among massage therapists that those who don't get injured are good, and those who do get injured and have to do something else in the field (like teach or write on the subject) are "bad". This is one of the attitudes that keeps people from speaking openly abuot injury and getting proper treatment (plus it's certainly not compassionate). Anyone can get injured, and thank goodness that those who do have many other options to use their hard-earned, expensive massage training to do some good for the profession.

I should point out also that I wrote Save Your Hands soon after I completed my massage training, so I did have the necessary training to discuss techniques. The book is also based on extensive consultation with physical therapists and other massage therapists who reviewed everything in it (Diana Thompson, head of the AMTA Foundation, was one of the editors of the book). The rest of my work is based on extensive research and my experiences working with hundreds of massage therapists in Save Your Hands workshops in the U.S. and Canada. Remember also that the book is about injury prevention - it's not a book on massage techniques based on a long history of working as a massage therapist, and there is nothing in the book that says that it is. Can you learn more about massage techniques from someone who has worked as an MT for many years? Sure. Can you learn more about avoiding injury from someone who was worked as an MT for many years but hasn't done the necessary research to truly understand injury prevention (a complex subject that goes WAY beyond good body mechanics)? I'm afraid not.

I must admit that it's been very difficult for me to be so sharply criticized (not by you, but by others), given that Save Your Hands was the first comprehensive book on injury prevention for MT's, and that my sole purpose in writing it was to help others avoid the same painful (3 years of treatment), career-destroying injury that I had suffered. I never expected the book to do well and still be selling 11 years later. The fact that it does still sell well shows that people find it helpful, which is great. If I have been successful with the book, one would think people would be happy that I was able to salvage something of the investment (a year and $8000 in student loans) I made in becoming a massage therapist.

My work has had an appreciable impact on the massage profession's acceptance and acknowledgement that injury happens in this profession. With my new collaborator, Rick Goggins, we worked for years to find a sponsor to allow us to do a study to get the first reliable statistics on work-related injury among massage therapists (work that the AMTA Foundation should have done years ago and never was interested in doing). When I first came out with the book and the workshops, there were schools that were vehemently opposed to the idea of talking about injury - if many schools now offer some kind of injury prevention or self-care training, it is in part due to my pioneering efforts. I was also the first person to write a self-care column in a major massage magazine. It's difficult to understand why anyone would have a problem with any of this.

Now I am writing a 2nd edition of the book, which will be out this year. I realize that I have been out of the field for over 10 years, and that yes, if I'm going to talk about the massage field, I no longer have enough first-hand knowledge of it to be credible. So I have two co-writers on this edition of the book. The first is Rick Goggins, who is a certified ergonomist and also a licensed massage practitioner. The second is Janet Peterson, who is an experienced, licensed physical therapist. Both are specialists in workplace injury. Between the three of us, we have a wealth of experience and expertise on the subject of work-related injury prevention in general, and in the manual therapies in particular.

It is possible to do research on a subject and write about it authoritatively - one doesn't need to be a steel worker to understand the risks of that profession and apply principles of ergonomics to give them suggestions on how to avoid injury. Yes, having first-hand experience is also very valuable, and that's why I now have collaborators for the 2nd edition of the book. But to have been criticized to the extent that I was criticized reflects more about a lack of understanding of this subject, and about the field of massage in general, than it reflects any shortcoming on my part in writing Save Your Hands. If people say "how dare you write about injury prevention when you can no longer work as an MT", I would say "how dare I NOT write about this subject when I had the ability to help people and change the profession as much as I have by my book, articles, and research study?" Not to blow my own horn, but it took guts to do what I did - admit to being injured in a profession that still thinks being injured is a sign of weakness or failure, and turn my own tragedy into something that has helped thousands of people to avoid having their own tragedy.

Choosing to do scholarly research work in the massage field is a noble, legitimate choice, just as it is in any field. "Those who can do, those who can't, teach" is a pretty unfair and untrue way of looking at things. Let's encourage more massage therapists, injured or not, to pursue whatever work in the field gives them pleasure and yes, rewards them financially for their investment and time in attending massage school.

 

[Old Fat Bald Guy]

Ah, now I remember an incident. I was moving my stuff into my new office 3 years ago, trying to carry my reception table through the door, and something slipped so I wound up holding hte table by one leg by one hand. It was a steelcase office table, kind of heavy. My wrist hurt for quite a while after that. Still "needs to pop" when mousing or sometimes while giving a massage.

While not technically an injury related to your massage work, you should definitely have gotten medical treatment for your injury (I hope you did). If you have injuries not related to your massage work, it's improtant to treat them to keep them from interfering with your massag work (and to go easy using the hand that got injured while doing massage, or take time off from work to let the hand heal).

 

[ajwooding]

Scheduling issues

Do any of you encounter problems with scheduling that make it difficult to protect yourself from injury, or cause injury? For example, a time you suddenly increased the number of massages you did in a week (taking on someone else's workload, or doing a weekend workshop or sports event) that made your hands, neck or back hurt?

 

[XArmed For BattleX^3]

Scheduling issues

Do any of you encounter problems with scheduling that make it difficult to protect yourself from injury, or cause injury? For example, a time you suddenly increased the number of massages you did in a week (taking on someone else's workload, or doing a weekend workshop or sports event) that made your hands, neck or back hurt?

I encountered this issue more when I was working for someone else. Just that they weren't cautious about how many massages to book me in a day and they would consistantly over book. Early on I was too shy to speak up about it so I just plowed though - leading to my initial injury I wrote of. Later on it was just the office help who didn't care and would schedule things that way regardless. One day the schedule would be fine and then the next morning all of a sudden you had too many appointments. I didn't feel good about cancelling, so I again just did the massages. At this point, I took care of myself and could handle the increase.

Now working of myself, I keep to my limits.

 

[Rich]

Scheduling issues

Now working of myself, I keep to my limits.

That's what it's all about, Masthera - setting limits and keeping to them. Good for you!

Any other stories about scheduling problems? Scheduling is a challenge, and a risk factor for injury.

 

[FrEe BiRd]

This probably won't help you, but...after being stuck inside from the weather for half a week, I'm reminded that I do MUCH better when I'm giving massages. Really, it's just being active at all versus sitting at my computer or watching TV. But being back in my office and giving massages, my body just feels so good! I guess I can tie this in with the lesson of self-care, not just while giving massage: regular exercise is a great way to stay strong and prevent the injury of the lazies (as in, me during an ice storm).

 

[Pompal 09.]

They didnt teach us much about scheduling in my school. They scheduled student clinic appointments 15 minutes apart for us. I always prayed I would have 2 sessions, a first and a third with an opening in the middle. I always felt rushed having 3 appointments 15 minutes apart, and then being rushed to finish up because the instructor was in a rush to leave.

 

[itisabeccathing]

Saveyourhands wrote: What concerns me in your post, though, is that you sought treatment from chiropractor, and that the chiropractor "diagnosed" you. I don't believe that diagnosis is within the scope of practice of a chiropractor. It is always best to see a healthcare practitioner who has the necessary training to rule out other types of pathology and properly diagnose musculoskeletal disorders. If your wrist continues to bother you off and on, you may need further medical treatment

Lauriann, this part of your post concerns me. Is your book solely focused on traditional western medicine? (MD visits, ultrasound, e-stim, cortisone shots, surgery, medication, etc.) For many of us, we've found alternative medicine to by a lot more effective in healing pain & injuries (chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, homeopathy, the mind-body connection, lymph drainage therapy, yoga, nutrition, etc.) Since your book is being sold to a market of alternative health practitioners (massage therapists), I hope you're providing information on all the ways people can treat & heal from injuries. In fact, it would be great if you could network with experts in these areas to provide you with potential chapters in your book.

Saveyourhands wrote: Not to blow my own horn, but it took guts to do what I did - admit to being injured in a profession that still thinks being injured is a sign of weakness or failure, and turn my own tragedy into something that has helped thousands of people to avoid having their own tragedy.

I do think your book has had a great influence on teaching practices in massage schools, and I thank you for writing it! I hope that your second edition will be expanded to focus on healing from injuries, in addition to preventing them. I think that's the part that readers felt was missing from the first book, and that's the part to which my above recommendations apply.



Good luck with the 2nd Edition!

 

[W Y]

Using traditional vs. alternative medicine to treat injuries

Saveyourhands wrote: What concerns me in your post, though, is that you sought treatment from chiropractor, and that the chiropractor "diagnosed" you. I don't believe that diagnosis is within the scope of practice of a chiropractor. It is always best to see a healthcare practitioner who has the necessary training to rule out other types of pathology and properly diagnose musculoskeletal disorders. If your wrist continues to bother you off and on, you may need further medical treatment

Lauriann, this part of your post concerns me. Is your book solely focused on traditional western medicine? (MD visits, ultrasound, e-stim, cortisone shots, surgery, medication, etc.) For many of us, we've found alternative medicine to by a lot more effective in healing pain & injuries (chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, homeopathy, the mind-body connection, lymph drainage therapy, yoga, nutrition, etc.)

I'm sorry that we're ending up discussing my book so much - the point of my posting in this forum was to hear YOUR experiences with injury. But I'll answer your question.

Save Your Hands presents traditional and alternative treatment options (there is an entire chapter on treatment, so I'm not sure why you say the book should talk more about healing from injury - it does already). Yes, the second edition will be greatly expanded, and will contain both traditional and alternative treatment methods.

But I don't think you read my post carefully - I was talking about DIAGNOSIS, not treatment. Before you treat, you must know what it is you're treating. Diagnosis is outside the scope of chiropractic, unless I'm mistaken. If you treat someone for carpal tunnel syndrome, and in fact, they have thoracic outlet syndrome, then the treatment you receive isn't going to be effective.

M.D.'s, and in many states, N.D.'s and D.O.'s, as well as some P.T.'s, are licensed to diagnose. That means they have the necessary training and education to accurately pinpoint a physiological cause for your symptoms. After that, you can use whatever treatment you find the most effective, including alternative treatments. But symptoms can come from many causes, including some that can be serious and life-threatening, so diagnosis is important. A client who comes to you with a pain in his shoulder and is breathing heavily and has cold clammy skin should not be given a massage - he should be sent to the emergenc room. While we all (including me) put a lot of faith in alternative treamtment methods, let's not forget what is within and not within the scope of practice of the different practitioners we see.

While I'm glad you find alternative treatment to be effective, I'm not sure why you say "more effective than traditional medicine." There are many traditional medical treatments for RSI that have been proven to be very effective. Probably the most effective approach would be to use a combination of traditional and alternative treatments. There are many traditional medicine providers who are proponents of alternative medicine, and can work with you to incorporate both in your treatment plan.

Injury is a serious issue - it should be properly diagnosed BEFORE it is treated.

NOW - I'm still interested in hearing YOUR experiences with injury - this is a good opportunity to share about that!