How I got Into Trigger Point Therapy- Part 4

First Pathetic Treatment

Poor Sue! She was so patient with my first pathetic treatment. Anyone who has tried to learn a new skill knows that the first few attempts are awkward and slow, and often not terribly successful. 

I started with the scalenes; those two strips of muscle you can feel in the front of your neck. Remember I said that trigger points feel like cooked macaroni under the skin? I thought it was going to be easy for me to find them because I’d already discovered that I can feel all sorts of nifty things under the skin, including things like temperature changes. 

Well, guess what. I probed and groped and did everything but stand on my head, but I could not find a trigger point in those stupid scalenes; not to mention I had to get into some really awkward positions to try to get to them. And, my fingers kept rolling off the muscles, and that sometimes hurt Sue.

The subscapularis was much worse to work on. It lines the inside of the shoulder blade, and the only way to get to it is by probing deep inside the underarm. The book said I needed to cut my nails down to the quick in order to get into those tight places, but I use my nails for everything, including massage therapy. So, I tried using the Knobble thingy I had ordered, but Sue and I found out pretty quickly that it was too big and too hard to use on delicate muscles and in small spaces. We decided we’d better skip subscapularis until I got better tools so I wouldn’t be scratching and gouging her. 

I figured the various arm muscles would be easy to get to, but again, try as I might, I could not feel a piece of macaroni under her skin. Nor could I find any particularly tender spots that would indicate where the trigger point was, using the rubber balls.  It wasn’t too long before I was about ready to cry from frustration, and told Sue I wanted to get some training before we tried this again, and she readily agreed. Poor Sue; she was so nice about it, but I think she was about ready to cry also; probably for a different reason.

I'll Continue This In A Few Days