A new patient in her late 30s recently told me, “I am always in pain.”
Her upper body was especially affected with constant pain in her scalp. She also had lower back and hip pain. She had head trauma from a car accident in 2007. The telling point was that she was a multiple birth, positioned deep in the pelvic cavity with her twin on top of her. Ouch.
She presented with the typical tight head and body commonly seen in twins. Usually, one fetus gets stuck in a distorted position and has significantly more structural issues than the other fetus. Because the trauma happened in utero, this patient has never known what it feels like to be truly healthy.
Her medical specialist felt that she had a connective tissue disorder, possibly Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). That seems to be the latest catch-all syndrome in Philadelphia for people who fall through the cracks of our fascial world.
Maybe her body is just tight. Maybe she is “always in pain” because of the sustained compressive strain, hidden in her body, from her twin laying on her for months.
On the first visit she showed a distinct fascial twist from her hips into her head. After that visit she excitedly reported that one hip became very loose, and the scalp pain completely disappeared.
At the second visit she presented with two different strain patterns from her trunk into her neck and head. When she told me on the evaluation visit that her neck was tight and painful, I believed her. She floated out of the office much looser.
She has chosen to go down the rabbit hole of therapy to become strain-free. An interesting journey, bringing forth remembered and forgotten emotional and physical traumas, lies ahead. I have high expectations.
Birth trauma causing soft tissue strain and subsequent disease is fresh thinking that may question ingrained conventional wisdom, challenge widespread medical assumptions, and confront entrenched vested interests.
Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy Articles on Health Conditions
