I had trouble getting up on Friday, slow to get going, quick to rage–all the signs of unmanaged pain. I called in to work to say I’d be late. “Seems like I woke as somebody else. And she’s not nice. I’ll be there when I figure out how to leave the house, but you’re not missing anything.”
The next day, I got lucky. I tried a HiFi Wellness sound table at the Front Range Chronic Pain meeting. Lying on a table experiencing pleasant vibration and listening to music for a half-hour halved my pain level that so far, the IFC unit (like a TENS) hadn’t been able to phase out. I raked a bit the day before, probably too exuberantly, trying to push through the pain and hurry the grandgirls, the voice in my head that sounds a lot like Mom telling me I did not have all afternoon to clean out the southeast corner, not if we were going to see the long-promised Nutcracker. The Southeast corner is critically important, urges the voice, now posturing like a knowitall — feng shui to let the good times roll. Regardless, we needed a path around the tree between the bushes.
All that type A urgency does me in every time. And also contributes to my success (sigh).
By the time I got to the Chronic Pain meeting, I was pretty frantic, pain level at about a 7½, cognitively and emotionally affected. Inventor Tom Fenner invited me to lie down on a posh massage table that basically converts your body into a speaker. Tom has installed high-definition speakers under the table aimed at the table top. He said, “You can lie down on your side or your back, doesn’t seem to matter,” and once I was in position, a pair of headphones nearby, he handed me a bluetooth mp3 player and showed my how to adjust the volume/intensity of the vibration.
He has researched the sound frequencies that relax muscles and I think — I need to try a few more times to be sure –reduces my pain. And he’s added the frequencies that stimulate production of the body’s natural opiates (to relax) and endorphins (to feel bright and refreshed and clear before rising). I certainly did. Although I felt a twinge of migraine pain, after a final scan, “to make sure we got everything” I rise from the table with a fabulous sense of well-being and positive chi sensation, like taking a bath in champagne. I was going out for the evening and arrived at the restaurant refreshed and ready to relax and enjoy my friend.
I think the vibration creates infinitesimal shakes that resemble what an advanced Trager massage practitioner can do, what my old friend Dick Brown did to break up the pain of his arthritic hips, always moving, like a dancer, shaking gently. The tiny movements break the holding patterns very gently by shifting the pattern of the uric acid crystals that physically create pain in the muscles. Just a theory. For more information about how this works, see HiFiWellness.
Even at the terrible risk of creating more pain, it’s always good to try new things that work for others, just to see if it can become “My way” of managing the pain. I encourage you to do the same and share what you find works for you, with those around you who are also in pain or by adding your comments below.
