Help! Massage Therapist Needed in Baltimore area

[Guest guest]

Greetings, raw family,

 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving celebrations. Sorry if this is off topic somewhat, but I've been having a severe case of tenosynovitis in my right thumb/wrist/hand, extending up to my shoulder for the past 3 weeks. I've been relying on my chiropractor for the past 3 weeks, who helped me in the past w/a similar problem. I've also been taking bromelain, initially the basic dose, then doubled & finally tripled the dose as of 2 days ago (now 1500 mg @2400 GDU, 3x/day). I only started noticing the problem a few days after doing a 22-mile bike tour (Tour du Port) around Baltimore's Inner Harbor on Sun., Oct. 22, but it must've originated from my job in the fed. gov.'t where I have to take public phone calls & type on a computer, clicking a mouse all day. I've been wearing an orthopedic wrist brace w/a thumb spica for about the past 2 weeks all day & when I drive, but it has its drawbacks too. Last night when I attended Natural Zing's potluck, I met an astute young masseur from Chicago who felt my hand & arm, advising me to seek out a masssage therapist who practices neuro-muscular therapy. As far as I'm aware, my Blue Cross federal employee basic plan only goes as far as covering chiropractic visits ($20 each for 20 visits/year); massage is not covered in & of itself. However, this masseur Chris told me some chiropractors have massage therapists in their offices, so the massage cost can be covered via chiropractic.

 

My parents both strongly advised me to go to a physical therapist, but my chiropractor told me his adjustments combined with bromelain, along with an ice pack inside an Ace bandage wrapped around my hand for 1/2 hour every night. Some nights, I haven't had time to sit for 1/2 hr. that way and I've also found it very painful, especially when I remove the ice & my hand defrosts. The pain of warming my hand afterward is about as torturous as the pain I have from typing, reaching, stretching, writing or doing anything else ordinary w/my hands. My left hand is also starting to feel the strain in the fingers. Chris told me last night that chiropractors & physical therapists don't like each other, but they both focus only on external elements, while neuromuscular therapy gets much deeper. His pressure on my right hand & arm last night was so excruciating that everyone else standing in Helen & Jeff's front livingroom turned around to stare when I moaned loudly in pain as someone else was getting an amateur massage, who himself presumably wasn't suffering. He wasn't doing much, which shows how off kilter my tendons are. My condition is also called De Quervain's Syndrome in which 2 tendons at the base of my thumb are constricted as they pass through an inflamed tunnel stretching upward to my elbow, which was very tender when my chiropractor worked on it last Monday.

 

This is critical to resolve promptly, especially as I'l be going to Hawaii for David Wolfe's NYE retreat on Dec. 27. For all the money I've already spent on that trip, I want to be able to enjoy it w/no pain or agony, all the moreso if there's any rappelling or other rigorous adventure to be had. Otherwise, it may be disastrous. The Life Pages I picked up at Roots focuses on the DC area in southern MD and VA, so Baltimore practitioners are almost nonexistent in that book. Neuromuscular therapy is essential in my case. I trust that any references in the Baltimore area you give will be valid. Thanks a million in advance.

 

Peace,

David

 

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

--Benjamin Franklin

 

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country."

--Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, 1908

 

 

 

 

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