A mother and her son were referred to me because the son had been having migraines since age 10. “Intense and daily.”
He is often completely debilitated with migraines, missing school, work and requiring hospital visits for extreme pain, nausea and vomiting. He has had a series of exams, cat scans and MRI all revealing nothing. He has had treatment from chiropractors, naturopaths, acupuncturists and massage therapists.
He is a tall boy, well over 6’5″ and grew quickly through his early teen years. His posture is what one would expect of a young man conscious of his height; forward head, rounded shouldered.
No history of head injuries, no eye troubles but a break of both lower bones of his right arm at age 10… Yep, a little foreshadowing.
The morning of the first visit he had just been discharged from the hospital because he had been there the night before with migraine pain. He still had pain and an antalgic posture.
First visit
Treatment: help decrease the tension left over in his body/cranium from the migraine episode. Cranial sacral work, all right side cranium was compressed and immobile but pulling inferiorly.
He responded well to treatment his pain lessing and his vision and demeanor clearing.
Second visit 10 days later
Treatment: worked to release the interoseous membrane, fascial restrictions and decompress long bones of his right arm.
Freed up brachial plexus, clavicle, cranial bones remained plyable and mobile from last visit. Teen reported a decrease in migraines since first visit.
Follow up call and visit 3 months later
I called the client to see how he had been since our last treatment. He reported that he hadn’t had any migraines since our last visit! The client came in for a follow up as he was still having pain and discomfort in his right shoulder. He was unable to fully externally rotate his R. shoulder.
Treatment: continue to treat fascial restrictions of R. arm and brachial plexus, decompress long bones and mobilize clavicle.
Had I not studied Barral’s work, I possibly would have stayed with treating the cranium as that is where the source of the pain was. In treating the fascial restrictions in the arm, I was able to free up the nerve roots and fascia that had become entrapped. The teen’s mother asked me after the last treatment “Was it really just the broken arm?” In this case, yes, it really was just the broken arm and the circumstances that surrounded it. There is no way to know ahead of time what the ramifications of any injury might be, just as there is no singular way for a body to react to a similar set of circumstances.