Help for RSI sufferers... (Osteopathy)

Member Name: HelenHancox

Product:	Osteopathy
Date:	18/07/02 (2189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: treatment doesn't hurt, very effective

Disadvantages: Can be costly - £30 for half an hour, How do you know if your osteopath is a good one?

I used to suffer from RSI. Or something like RSI anyway. As a computer user who spent a lot of time working with databases (tabbing across fields, pressing return a lot) I ended up with painful hands. Hands, not wrists.

So... as I was working at a private hospital, I got myself some free physiotherapy. This involved electrotherapy on both hands, massaging in Ibuleve (ibuprofen) cream and sitting with bags of frozen peas on my hands in the evenings in front of the TV. After six sessions and zero improvement, I went for the second option...

Which was going to my local GP. He suggested that I required a course of anti-inflammatory tablets to take down any inflammation (of course I had already done all possible to improve my working environment - good chair, graphics tablet rather than mouse, monitor the right height etc etc). So my nice GP gave me Voltarol (diclofenac sodium) tablets and sent me on my way.

I took the Voltarol for about six weeks and the problem seemed to ease slightly. The Voltarol tablets ran out and I didn't get round to getting any more.

Then I found I was getting really tired. I thought I had flu. Then I thought I had ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I completely lost my appetite. When I eventually got an appointment with the doctor they said I had a Urinary Tract infection and gave me antibiotics.

Two days later I was at the emergency doctor as the antibiotics made me badly sick. That doctor diagnosed me with diabetes, told me to eat fruit and no sugar, and sent me on my way. Scary moment. [Yes, I know this Op is about Osteopathy... it will come!]

Anyway, trotted back to my own GP Monday morning who said that it wasn't diabetes as my readings were too low and I hadn't tested positive for sugar in my urine on my earlier visit. So they'd take a blood test.

Blood test results came back eventually. I was in renal (kidney) failure. Now that's DEAD scary. Go
t sent up to the renal consultant at Guy's Hospital in London who did a biopsy (operation) on my birthday and concluded that I had suffered an allergic reaction to the Voltarol tablets I had taken for my RSI. Not only that, I would now be allergic to any other NSAID tablet such as ibuprofen, and that would include rubbing ibuprofen into the skin.

Treatment for my interstitial nephritis involved a year on steriods (which did help the RSI situation!), putting on 3 stone in weight, loads of other side effects, but almost complete recovery from the kidney failure (I have some residual damage but not enough to worry about).

So, now what. Off steroids I still had painful hands. I work with computers; I can't take Voltarol/ibuprofen or rub in Ibuleve. What to do?

It just so happened a friend of mine said she had spoken about it with a friend who was an osteopath and that he said he could help about 50% of cases with RSI. Well, I thought I'd go for it - I had no other options.

For my first visit the Osteopath, Brian Hounsfield of Epsom, took a full medical history. This took about 20 minutes and was very thorough. Apparently osteopaths are the only people (other than doctors) who are allowed to "diagnose".

Anyway, we talked through everything and then he examined me. He got me to do lots of movements with my head (looking over my shoulder, looking up and down etc etc) and also looked at my hands, tested my reflexes and lots of other stuff. He then diagnosed my problem - and it was with my neck! Nothing to do with my hands, but actually a problem starting in my neck which affected my hands.

Treatment involved me lying on the plinth (hospital bed thingy) whilst he gently pulled my head away from my body with a massage-like motion. It was pleasant - not uncomfortable. He did this for about ten minutes. Then, suddenly and very surprisingly, took my the side of my face in one hand and held m
y head in the other and swiftly twisted my neck to one side. There was an audible crack - like a gunshot! Then he carried on with the neck stretching, and then twisted the other way (another loud crack, but this time less of a surprise as I was ready for it!!!). He then did a little more neck stretching, did a couple of minutes work on my hands, and that was it.

I stood up and then did all the looking over my shoulder exercises. I could twist my neck much further round, look up and down much further, and my head felt kind of light.

The cost of this treatment was £35. He asked me to book an appointment for a fortnight's time, which I did. But my hands were almost better after this first treatment. It was like magic!

The second treatment took about 25 minutes. And at the end of that there was no problem with my hands. Amazing! I asked him if I needed to do exercises at home or anything and he said no, just to make sure that I slept with only one pillow, not the two that I had, and to try not to read in bed (which I still do, actually!).

I now go back every six months or so just to be "topped up" and the RSI is under control. I have a few other friends with a similar RSI-type problem and I have to say that we are all fairly tall. I of course recommend the osteopath to them all. Brian also sorted out my husband's whiplash after a bad car accident.

I think osteopathy's great. I also wish I'd gone to the osteopath before two years of faffing around with other methods of treatment which involved kidney failure!!!

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