December 2018 was the month of my greatest physical pain, but also the most fruitful in the field of further development of BDA therapy.
In the last seven months I have repeatedly experienced incredible pain as a result of inflammation of the nerve roots in the cervical spine. At first, the problem shyly appeared as a tightening in the neck, and then it worsened and with each new occurrence, the pain became more and more intense. The periods of sleeplessness at night began, with pain first coming down the right arm and then down the left arm.
It all culminated in December when the pain became so unbearable that I was no longer able to perform on my own the examinations of children during the courses, but my dear colleagues took it upon themselves while I watched. Analgesics, combinations of medicines that will relieve pain so that I can be present at the courses … all in all, a true hell, also witnessed by the parents present at the course in Moscow
Fortunately, my caring colleague Ganna Lyakina suggested that I visit an osteopath Ekaterina Dolgova, which for me was, I’d say a turning point. During just one treatment, Ekaterina was able to remedy most of my neck problems. She managed to remedy the problem with her skills in 1 hour – the problem which actually gradually accumulated over more than three years, culminating in December.
Apart from that, Ekaterina also did one more thing, very important for me: she encouraged me to think and I experienced that moment when the light bulb above your head goes on, when everything becomes clear to you! All the knowledge and years of experience were summed up in one point, and all the pieces fit perfectly into the puzzle and everything came together into one completely logical whole! It suddenly became crystal clear to me what had happened in my body, as well as what I needed to do to help it, and how I could use that knowledge in my work.
Fascia is a potential source of pain, and the tightening and limitation of mobility and slippage of the fascial tissue is the consequence of adhesion and fibrosis between the superficial and deep layers. The layers of the fascia slide over each other as we move; however, when the tissue becomes tight and fibrotic, the ability to move freely decreases and we feel pain.
I started experimenting with my body and felt on myself that certain layers of fascia were peeling off. I managed to mobilize the shoulder blade and the entire shoulder girdle and the pain in my arm was gone!
This prompted me to think about how I can translate this new knowledge into concrete exercises that will become part of a wide range of BDA exercises that we will be able to use to help the children in our program.
In the next post I will write about new techniques and effects that could be achieved by applying these techniques.
