Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Lance Armstrong & Turtles

Recovering from repetitive strain injury; tendonitis or carpal tunnel syndrome is similar to eating an elephant. Do you know how to eat an elephant? Of course you do -its one bite at a time.

The movie ‘Greys Anatomy’ –a monologue by Spaulding Grey- is a pseudo-documentary. Basically, it’s a funny journey through alternative health care practices. Spaulding is initially diagnosed with macular degeneration and told he needs eye surgery. He asks the doctor how long he has before he needs to do the surgery and still have a good outcome. The doctor gives him some amount of time. He really does not want a surgery, so he goes off and pursues alternative methods and cures. This adventure takes him to a Native American sweat lodge ceremony, to a Pilipino psychic surgeon and many other encounters in search of a magic pill.

If you’ve experienced carpal tunnel symptoms and repetitive strain injury symptoms for over six months you know the road to recovery can be frustrating and fatiguing. I know the allure of that ‘magic pill’ that will make everything better in an instant. Are you constantly searching for a magic pill? Do you know you may be sabotaging the gains you’ve made? You may have unknowingly been undermining your recovery progress.

I have seen this happen… Maybe it’s our microwave MTV culture. We want it now. We wanted it yesterday. Small steps are not noted; only the big leaps. It’s all better or not. And this is unfortunately promoted by our insurance and legal systems as well.

Zig Ziglar tells the story about priming the water pump, bringing the arm up & down, up and down. Over & over again and the system builds up pressure –but there no water yet. Pumping and pumping continues and no water yet the pressure is building and it about to happen –but because it has not happened the pumper stops thinking it’s not going to happen. Now having stopped all the effort is lost and will have to start from the beginning again, but now more fatigued and frustrated. I don’t know about you but I’ve never had to prime a pump –I only have had to turn on the faucet and voila water. For some of you your hand symptoms have progressed so far that you cannot turn on the water facet. Others be aware, yes, it can get that serious.

Anyway, consider an exponential curve. The lead time is long with little results and you can’t see around the bend. On and on this lead time feels like forever (like the computer startup feels like forever) it isn’t; it’s just longer than you’d like given the training in our fast paced society. Then once around the curve - the results come quick. This is how recovery can occur.

Remember Christopher Reeve? For six years he did everything he could to set him self up for recovery progress. He checked his diet, he made sure joint motion was maintained. He used electrical input. He set it up to have his limbs be exercised so his system got stimulated. Then after six years without any sign; he volitionally wiggled a finger. WOW. For him with a high spinal cord injury this was miraculous. Nerves heal slowly. And I’m not suggesting it will be a 6 year path without signals for you – CT, RSI, TOS involve nerves but not at the spinal cord level.

What would it be like to know your moving in the right direction?

Physical Therapy Can Get You Moving in the Right Direction

There is a Japanese term ‘Kaison’. I read about last week –and according to Perry Marshall “it refers to the art and science of continuous ongoing improvement. Kaison is the magic of taking a good process and making it great.”

“And here’s the secret: It’s all about small steady incremental improvements.”

This is the kind of diligence that Lance Armstrong applied to shaving off seconds. He examined every aspect of himself, the bike, the team, terrain and the clothing. He called on the careful assessment of experts – addressing critical components because for him every second counted. Now no-one considers Lance a turtle yet his approach of making progressive adjustments… incremental improvements… ‘Kaison’ can seem turtle-like. This together with consistent attention and an unbelievable work ethic added up to winning the Tour de France 7 times. I love his wrist band message ‘Live Strong.’

This is how you make progress incrementally moving towards health step by step. Examining and progressing each of the pieces in the system until they all sync up harmoniously into the complete wholeform gestalt.

Which pieces do we address in physical therapy for RSI treatment or TOS treatment? Here are a few components: Posture, Strength, muscle status and spasms, nerve status, flexibility, pacing, pain, environment, functional motion (biomechanics), and endurance.

Slow & steady will win the race for you too and it need not be slow –it does need to be consistent.