How Recognition And Communication Can Help Cauda Equina Syndrome

April 8, 2019/in First Aid, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy, Pain/by Jamie Johnston

Sometimes a patient walks into your clinic and it’s hard to decipher what’s going on with them.

It may be something we’ve never seen before, their signs and symptoms don’t add up, or their pain doesn’t seem to correlate to their description of the cause. When things don’t seem to add up, our clinical reasoning has to jump into full effect to figure out what’s going on.

Looking at the red flags of low back pain, one of the conditions that really stands out is Cauda Equina Syndrome.

While it is rarely seen in practice (I have yet to ever encounter a patient with it) it is something we should have a working knowledge of, so our clinical reasoning can jump into action.

Early recognition and referral to medical help can make a massive difference in its development and effect on a patient, so we have a responsibility to recognize and refer out when necessary, and in this case, it is!

Recognizing Cauda Equina

The Cauda Equina is a bundle of nerve roots that angle down in the vertebral canal from the end of the spinal cord, which looks like wisps of hair, giving it its name, meaning “horse’s tail”.

What causes Cauda Equina Syndrome is usually some sort of compression happening at the nerve roots around the lumbar to sacral area. The most common causes are:

Lumbar disc herniation, prolapse, or sequestration (one systematic review showed 45% were disc related)
Smaller prolapses due to spinal stenosis.

The less common causes are:

Epidural Haematoma.
Infection.
Primary and metastatic neoplasms.
Trauma.
Post-surgical.
Prolapse due to manipulation.
Chemonucleolysis.
After spinal anesthesia.
Patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis.
Gunshot wounds.
Constipation.

All of these things are important to ask during a patient history if you suspect a possibility of Cauda Equina, but more important is their clinical presentation. It may present as:

Low back pain.
Saddle anesthesia.
Bilateral sciatica.
Weakness of their lower extremities.
Paraplegia.
Bowel, bladder, or sexual dysfunction.

The most commonly seen are low back pain and radicular leg pain because of tissue irritation around the lumbar spine.

When it comes to assessing patients who could possibly be dealing with this, one review showed they can be placed into three groups:

CESS (Cauda Equina Syndrome Suspicious or Suspected)
- Bilateral radiculopathy.
- Subjective sphincteric problems with no objective evidence of CES.
CESI
- Subjective symptoms and objective signs, but voluntary control of urination.
CESR (Cauda Equina Syndrome Retention)
- Neurogenic retention of urine with a paralyzed, insensate bladder along with urinary incontinence.

Now just as we see some “red flags” with low back pain, CES has also been divided into red flags and white flags and are divided into:

Definite Red Flags
- Bilateral Radiculopathy.
- Progressive neurological deficit in the legs.
Possible Red or White Flags
- Impaired perineal sensation.
- Impaired anal tone (not that I’m suggesting you should ever try to palpate this).
- Urinary difficulties that are unspecified.
Definite White Flags
- Urinary retention or incontinence.
- Fecal incontinence.
- Perineal anesthesia.

With this outline, we define the “true red flags” as someone who has bilateral radiculopathy, difficulties with urinating, or changes in bladder function, along with the loss of perineal sensation. However, there is nothing that gives a clear diagnosis because so many of the symptoms are objective. It is recommended that MRI is important, not because it can diagnose, but rather it shows which people with red flag symptoms have significant compression of the nerve roots, which may result in treatment before the development of the white flags which are more severe.

White flags are a way of saying “defeat or surrender” as the signs are often seen too late and are irreversible. Therefore the review outlining these red and white flags makes the argument that white flags should be removed because treatment at this stage might be too late to recover and avoid long term harm.

Another review even pointed out these different subclasses were too ambiguous as far as signs any symptoms go, so they should be avoided as well.

Then the argument is made that CES diagnosis should revolve around one or more of the following being present: bladder or bowel dysfunction, reduced sensation in the saddle area, and sexual dysfunction with possible lower limb neurologic deficits.

Clear Communication And Reassurance

As we have talked about before, when it comes to low back pain, patient reassurance is a crucial aspect of helping them deal with these issues.

Much of the evidence shows good outcomes occur when patients have decompressive surgery early before there are incomplete lesions on the nerve. However, it is unclear as to which exact surgery (there are a few different types) works the best and is another factor that could affect patient outcomes.

So the important thing is for us to recognize these symptoms, realize there is an issue, and have our patients get the appropriate help, (which is most likely a trip to the hospital), as early recognition and treatment is key.

We want to ensure when talking to our patients that we are using clear and easily understandable terms, as well as proper descriptive terms when referring to doctors as this is a rare condition and is estimated a doctor may only see this once in their career.

It is crucial that our communication with patients is centered on them, not only in the way we talk, but also in the way we listen, as it has been shown they use very explicit language in their description of symptoms. It is then important for us to use terms they understand. Much of the research uses terms like “micturition” and “incontinence” which came across as very vague and hard to understand for patients. Rather, using terms like “urinating”, or “difficulties using the restroom” would be more appropriate. One patient was told their issue was serious if they were incontinent, yet the patient would be able to “force” themselves to use the toilet, so didn’t understand this was an issue.

So, clear communication is key to the emphasis and seriousness of their condition, as well as the importance of getting to the hospital quickly (better outcomes within 48 hours of recognition and treatment). While these can be difficult conversations to have, they are crucial ones because if this isn’t recognized and dealt with, there can be long term and VERY undesirable consequences, which are quite simply life altering. We can play a major role in this for our patients. While it may be difficult to have conversations (and some would argue we shouldn’t) centered around sexual dysfunction and using the toilet, we owe it to our patients as healthcare professionals to not only be open to, but willing to talk about this for their better outcome.

When You SHOULD NOT Treat Your Patients Thoracic Pain

January 7, 2019/1 Comment/in Emergencies, First Aid, First Responder, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy, Uncategorized/by Valerie Bobb

When I was in physical therapy school, PTs in the States didn’t have direct access.

I figured I needed to mainly focus on differential diagnosis of musculoskeletal issues and not worry about cancer or visceral referral pattern. However, the States slowly has been adopting direct access for physical therapy and I also learned that regardless of having a referral, physicians don’t always spend enough time with patients to properly rule out other causes.

The purpose of differential diagnosis is not to just identify a specific structure involved, but to also help determine prognosis, other psychosocial factors and to rule out serious pathology and identify conditions not appropriate for physical or massage therapy.

My patient was in her late 20’s and 6 weeks postpartum. She had been having mid-thoracic pain and right scapular pain for almost 12 weeks. Her physician sent her to therapy to receive manual therapy and strengthening.

During the examination, I had difficulty reproducing her pain, but she stated her pain was worse at the end of the day after lifting, carrying and feeding her child all day. She had weakness in her extensors and scapular retractors. Even though I couldn’t reproduce her pain, I gave her some stretching and started some scapular stabilization exercises. I figured her pain was from a sudden increase in lifting and carrying, sitting with her child and a change in her chest size.

Admittedly I treated her for 3 follow-up visits (with little change) before I realized what the problem was.

On the third visit, her husband said: “I just don’t understand why the pain is always so bad late at night.” He was more specific than she had been (end of the day). The pain was late (10 pm) and often caused his wife violent vomiting. That minute the lightbulb went on (and according to my patient I shouldn’t play poker because she knew!). I asked her if she had ever had a White or light stool, she denied it, but her husband said: “don’t you remember the one when you were pregnant?” She had a white bowel movement back when she was about 26 weeks pregnant! She had denied pain anywhere else, but the minute I palpated her upper right abdominal quadrant she jumped off the table and reported radiation to her back/scapular area.

There it was….GALLBLADDER!

She was admitted to the hospital an hour later and was in surgery 4 hours later. The surgeon said she was days away from a rupture.

Quite honestly, I felt like an ass.

I had seen her for 4 visits total before the husband had said the words that made gallbladder click in my head. I realize she had seen both her Obstetrician and her Primary Care physicians prior to coming to see me, but that did little to make me feel much better at the time. I had just started treating pregnancy and postpartum and couldn’t believe I almost missed something so important! I went back and reviewed all my red flags and visceral referral patterns after this incident.

I also share this story with every obstetrics in therapy class I teach.

Also, women and men often present differently with visceral referral patterns. For gallbladder, women tend to have more vomiting than men. Also, during pregnancy, the increase in estrogen leads to an increase in cholesterol in the bile and estrogen reduces gallbladder contractions. The decrease in contractions leads to less bile leaving and an increased risk for gallbladder stones. This can lead to severe pain and potential for infection.

Summary of Gallbladder symptoms:

Chills and/or low-grade fever
Dark colored urine
Jaundiced appearance
Light-colored stools
Nausea and vomiting (especially at night)
Stomach pain particularly after a high-fat meal
Right shoulder/scapular, mid back pain

We are never going to be perfect, but the goal is to learn from past patients and pick up on patterns faster the next time. It also helps to share our experiences. So keep these risk factors and symptoms in the back of your mind the next time your patient’s mid thoracic pain isn’t making sense!

Massage Therapy, Communication, And Helping Trauma Survivors

February 26, 2018/in First Aid, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy/by Jennifer Stelzer

I’m one of those people that nod and smile to the person next to me on the bus and 15 minutes later I have heard most of their life story. You might be nodding and thinking “mmmhmm” right about now. In fact, I think if there was a group of massage therapists gathered and a similar question was asked, many would raise their hand at being “that person”.

Massage therapists have an intimate connection with their clients. Many of us work on clients who are only one sheet away from being naked in front of us. That means we need to be exemplary in our treatment of someone on the table. It’s not only a body, but a mind with varying experiences we are working with everytime we touch a client.

Let’s go back to questioning a group of MTs. If the question asked was “How many of you are survivors of trauma” there would no doubt be hands in the air. A lot of MTs came to the profession because of their experience with massage during a traumatic recovery, or, seeing how it positively affected a loved one.

But for the hands that remained down, does this mean they have not experienced trauma?

Absolutely not.

Many people prefer not to share their stories, which is understandable and acceptable. Do not expect that your client will share their personal past or trauma with you. Do treat everyone with the knowledge they may well be in the middle of a traumatic event, or have past event(s) that continue to have an impact on their lives.

When we speak of treating a client with a past trauma we usually think of a physical injury or PTSD. PTSD often brings to mind those who served in the military, but in fact many situations may cause PTSD, as well as C-PTSD, Growing up in poverty, being adopted, survivor guilt, sexual abuse/rape, confinement of any sort (prison, residential treatment centers) repeated injury such as childhood physical and sexual abuse.

The person currently in the middle of a divorce or custody situation. The one who just found out they cannot birth their own children. The client who spent part of their life living with abuse-whether verbal, physical or both. The one who has been body shamed by loved ones. A person who may have spent time in confinement. A former or current member of the military or someone who has seen the effects of war firsthand.

The stories are different, sometimes similar, but affect every human in a very personal manner, consistent with their other life experiences.

Nurturing, Ethical Standards, And Trauma

A few years ago, a client of mine I thought I knew well opened up after a year of sessions.

The client told me they were glad that I worked through the sheets when doing gluteal work, as they had always felt uncomfortable having this type of work done, but enjoyed the benefits post massage.

They told me about being aggressively assaulted by a group of people earlier in their life. This news was of course stunning. All I could do was stutter “I am so sorry” and continue with the session. At the end of the session, the client thanked me for listening and not offering any advice, and again for providing the additional draping. This incident opened my eyes to the knowledge that as massage therapists we rarely know more than the basic details of a client’s history.

After working so closely with the public, I realized that most people have many hidden faces underneath.

I changed my outlook to try and recognize that when someone comes in and says they are ‘not doing great’, there is no need for me to ask why. I am here to provide bodywork. If the client decides to share information with me, it stays in the room. I will not bring it up in another session (unless it is health related to their treatment) and will acknowledge that sometimes people need an ear, but that isn’t a request for feedback.

What we do is nurturing, but we are not “healers”. We must hold high ethical standards that go well beyond not dating clients. All clients must be treated equally, and strict adherence to scope of practice is mandatory. With this in mind and the knowledge that we cannot know if someone currently is experiencing, or has been affected in the past by trauma, all clients should be treated as though trauma has affected their life in some way.

When clients do indicate “PTSD” on their health history, do not inquire about specifics.

Usually, boxes for anxiety, depression and insomnia are also checked as PTSD comes with a host of comorbidities. Some, such as depression and anxiety, have been shown to be alleviated by massage therapy to some degree. Other symptoms like sleep disturbances may also benefit from the use of massage.

A common side effect of PTSD are panic attacks. Some of us have already experienced a friend, family member or coworker have a panic attack. It is a scary and debilitating experience both for the person having the attack and the others present. I have personally witnessed several clients experience a panic attack during a session. I have found it is best to stop the bodywork, redrape the client and allow them the opportunity to end the session at that time. Every experience is different. Some clients need a few minutes, a sip of water, some need to have the therapist leave the room so they can regroup, or get dressed and end the session for that day.

Be sure to ask them if they are aware if this is a panic attack. If not, symptoms can be similar to cardiac events, so familiarize yourself with the symptoms of each, or call for emergency assistance if necessary.

While studies suggest that massage therapy may be beneficial for symptom management of PTSD, it is a priority to ask all clients about their comfort of level of undress, areas of the body to be worked or not touched- and informed consent. Remind each client this is their session, and as a therapist, you are willing to work within their boundaries.

As discussed, we cannot identify trauma in a client and many clients may not feel comfortable enough to discuss trauma, especially during early sessions, so we must do our best to avoid triggers which may result in panic attacks or other symptoms of distress. As your therapeutic relationship develops, it may be more appropriate to discuss things as the patient opens up to you, but when starting out, try to avoid those triggers.

Some suggestions are below.

Do’s And Dont’s

Do: Create and maintain boundaries in your practice

Don’t: Deviate from boundaries

Do: Allow time for a thorough intake

Don’t: Rush your client

Do: Ask for emergency contact

Don’t: Ask marital status

Do: Have a box to check for pregnancy

Don’t: Ask about children

Do: Ask for preferred name & pronoun

Don’t: Assume nicknames or gender

Do: Request current health information

Don’t: Ask about heritage, accents

Do: Ask for surgical/accident history

Don’t: Set time limits (ie: 10 yrs)

Do: Add a box for PTSD

Don’t: Expect full disclosure

Do: Discuss levels of undress

Don’t: Ever adjust bras/underwear

Do: Ask clients about working gluteal areas

Don’t: Ask when client on table

Do: Discuss Informed Consent

Don’t: Make assumptions

Do: Avoid negative words & phrases

Don’t: Talk down to clients

Do: Greet every client with a smile & nod

Don’t: Force a handshake

Do: Respect personal space

Don’t: Initiate a hug

Do: Give advance warning of animals in practice

Don’t: Assume a client likes animals

Do: Ask client about music preference or none

Don’t: Play what you want to hear

Do: Appreciate client’s religious preference

Don’t: Display religious emblems

Do: Treat a body with respect

Don’t: Ask about scars or tattoos

Do: Provide appropriate draping

Don’t: Discuss client weight/height

Do: Acknowledge each client is an individual

Don’t: Council/compare clients

Do: Work in scope of practice

Don’t: Offer nutrition advice or sell other services you provide

Remember, we do not need to walk on eggshells, just work within our scope of practice, treat each client as an individual and understand there are many context layers in each person’s life experience.

Red Flags For Low Back Pain, Or Clinical Decision Making?

November 6, 2017/1 Comment/in Emergencies, First Aid, First Responder, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy, Sport Massage/by Jamie Johnston

It’s only happened a couple of times in my career.

You know that feeling you get when something just isn’t right? You’re not quite sure what it is, but something just seems off?

Twice I’ve had people come in where their pain and limited mobility had me questioning if they needed a trip to the emergency room. In one instance I called a family member who took the patient in, and everything checked out fine.

The other instance, the persons low back pain was so extreme, it just didn’t add up. There was no history of trauma or anything else that suggested the hospital was necessary, but I could barely touch the patient during the treatment because their low back was so sensitive. Afterward, I recommended seeing a doctor, or emergency room, but they refused. I never saw them again, so I’m not sure what the outcome was.

So how do we know when low back pain is an emergency, or just really painful?

Traumatic Injuries And The RTC

In old First Aid terms, there were criteria we would use at the scene of an accident to quickly decide if a patient had to have spinal immobilization used and if they needed to be immediately sent to the hospital.

It was called the RTC (Rapid Transport Category), and it was a simple list which made it easier to decide how to provide the appropriate care to a patient. While this isn’t as useful in a clinical setting, it could be invaluable in a sport, or outreach setting if some type of emergency were to happen and you are required to provide care. In a clinical setting, it would be helpful during your patient interview in case you weren’t quite sure why a patient is having the issues they are presenting with.

The RTC criteria include quite an extensive list of things to watch for. Not all of them would be applicable to us, but here are some that would be:

Mechanism of injury
- Fall from greater than 20ft
- High-speed accident
- Pedestrian struck at speeds higher than 30 km/hour
- Broken windshield damaged steering wheel, or airbags deployed
- A rollover accident
- Severe crush injuries
- Any other people involved in the accident that result in a fatality
- Electrical injuries (we always assume spinal damage with electrocution)
Anatomy of injury
- Severe brain injury
- Penetrating injuries to anything but the limbs
- Depressed skull fracture
- Pregnant woman with fairly moderate trauma
Findings in the Primary Survey
- Decreased level of consciousness
- Cardiac arrest
- Suspected heart attack
- Poisoning
- Status Epilepticus

Particularly for us in the clinical setting the mechanism of injury should be one category to take note of. Hopefully, if someone has been through an accident that traumatic, they have already been to the emergency room, or at least a doctor to be checked out, but this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes a patient may play it off and just think they need to see a chiro, physio, or massage therapist and book in with you before ever seeing a doctor, or even calling 9-1-1 after an accident.

I’m sure we all see patients on a regular basis who have been in a car accident. Knowing those above criteria and being able to ask some of those specific questions in your interview may give you a better idea as to how severe their injuries could be. Or, if they played it off and haven’t been checked out, you may want to refer them to a doctor just to be safe.

Whenever I teach a first aid course we talk about the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. This is where there could be a bit of a red flag, as it is quite common for women to experience back pain associated with a heart attack. However, it would be back pain combined with other symptoms like chest pain, nausea and vomiting, sweating, and shortness of breath.

This is certainly part of our role as healthcare professionals to recognize and help our patients if this is happening.

Photo by: Lucina Medina

The Red Flags Of Low Back Pain

There seems to be a wide array of information on the red flags of acute low back pain.

Most of the concern is driven toward four issues:

Malignancy
Infection
Fracture
Cauda Equina Syndrome

One red flag that is unrelated to specific disease was the onset of pain in patients under 20 years old. However, one study actually calls this a “dubious distinction” and shows that age alone combined with pain is not enough to be considered a red flag, as most of the participants in the study were diagnosed with non-specific mechanical spinal pain.

When we look at the risk factors associated with spinal fractures, most information cites major or significant trauma, age, a history of osteoporosis, and the use of corticosteroids as the red flags to look out for. A systematic review showed that all of the above combined with the presence of a contusion brought the probability of a fracture up from 4% to a range between 9 and 62%. An Australian study showed that when three red flags (female, over 7o years of age, severe trauma, and use of corticosteroids) were all present, the chance of a fracture went from 4% to 90%. So, when looking at red flags for fractures, one red flag alone is not likely an issue, but a combination of the red flags is more likely to result in a fracture.

The commonly used red flags for infection were:

Fever/chills
Use of corticosteroids or immunosuppressant therapy
IV drug use
Pain worse at night
Night and rest pain
Tenderness over the spinous process

But the same systematic review showed that there is a lack of standardization with these red flags, and the risk of serious disease in patients with low back pain is less than 0.1%.

The same can be said for malignancy, as the one big red flag, in this case, is a history of cancer. Yet “history of cancer” isn’t clear enough as it doesn’t specify how long ago the person was diagnosed or the type of cancer they had. There are several cancer types that apparently put a person at greater risk for spreading to the spine, but if the person didn’t have one of those types, or had it 20 years ago, the likelihood of spinal malignancy is probably a lot less than someone diagnosed recently.

The two most common red flags with Cauda Equina were saddle anesthesia (perineal numbness) and sudden onset of bladder dysfunction. Either way, I’d be referring out for that!

One thing that came out of most of the studies I could find was one resonating point. Clinical decision making and judgment of the therapist to determine if the patient needs to be referred out is more reliable than the list of red flags. So in other words, when in doubt, refer out! There are some other things to take into account with this whole red flag discussion and one review makes a great point as to why screening for red flags isn’t reliable. As practitioners, we don’t actually screen, we manage low back conditions. They actually encourage watchful waiting for changes in symptoms, as evidence is showing that early intervention with low back pain may actually be more harmful.

One thing I hadn’t ever heard of was “yellow flags,” however, I found it encouraging that it was mentioned in a paper from rheumatologists. They listed these yellow flags as:

A belief that back pain is harmful or disabling
Fear of pain and movement avoidance
Tendency to low mood and withdrawal from social interaction
Expectation of passive treatments rather than believing active participation helps

Biopsychosocial approach anyone? It’s great to see these “yellow flags” being mentioned with the same importance as the dreaded red flags.

Overall, it is probably good to be aware of those red flags to help guide your clinical decision making, but they aren’t the be all end all like we once thought they were. The valuable thing will be your judgment call and also making sure to monitor your patients progress. If your spidey senses start tingling, and something doesn’t seem right, don’t hesitate to refer out, it’s better safe than sorry.

Putting Your Safety As A Massage Therapist First

July 31, 2017/4 Comments/in Business, First Aid, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy/by Jamie Johnston

It was the strangest thing to happen in my career to that point.

Something just felt off, right from the introduction to a new patient. I couldn’t explain it, it just felt off.

The patient came in and was very demanding. Telling me over and over again, “deep pressure is the only thing that works for me, it HAS to be deep pressure.”

Fair enough, I weigh around 215lbs, I should be able to put enough pressure into this.

After they got on the table, I went to work. As I pushed in with more pressure, I would continually check in to make sure they were satisfied with the pressure.

Then about 15 minutes into the treatment the patient abruptly said: “this isn’t working for me, I want to stop!”

I quickly asked if I had done something wrong?

“No, I just want this to stop now, it’s not working for me.”

I ended the treatment and said I would meet them outside when they were ready. As the patient exited the room, their hand reached out with a credit card in it. I said there would be no charge as it was only a 15-minute treatment (they were booked in for 45) and were also dissatisfied with it. But they refused and paid for the treatment.

I sat there even more confused (although happy I would have the next 1/2 hour to figure out what just happened).

As they walked out the door, the patient turned back and said: “thanks a lot for making me feel safe.”

Now, I was even more confused (and convinced the person had been sent in as a test or something), but even in the confusion, there was something that I was concerned with even more.

What about MY safety?

Right Of Refusal

This is where things can get a bit tricky.

When I look at our provincial bylaws (I’m just going to assume most other places are about the same) under the code of ethics there is a wide range of topic and wording that apply to us in practice. And that wording can be read a couple of different ways, depending on your interpretation.

To highlight a few that are applicable to the point of this post:

Massage therapists must set and maintain appropriate professional boundaries with a patient.
Despite section 23(iii), a massage therapist may immediately terminate the therapeutic relationship with any patient that:
- sexualizes or attempts to sexualize the treatment or environment, or
- threatens the massage therapist or otherwise endangers the massage therapist.
Massage therapists must protect and maintain personal and professional integrity.
Massage therapists must maintain a safe and healthy treatment environment.

Now granted, the colleges responsibility is to protect the public and most of these are probably in place with that thought in mind, as opposed to protection of a therapist.

The reason I bring all of this up is because of the story I mentioned in the beginning but also because, most of the time when I hear of someone who has been falsely accused of something (these are just things I’ve heard in passing, not from anyone directly who has been accused), I also hear, they regret not ending the treatment themselves because something just felt “off.”

Since we are to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with a patient, the responsibility lies with us. If the patient is going beyond a boundary it is up to us to end and or alter the treatment.

As laid out, we can terminate a therapeutic relationship if a patient threatens or otherwise endangers us as a therapist. In this case, I’m sure the intent was if a patient was actually threatening or physically endangering us. But what about when they are doing something that could possibly endanger your career, your mental health, or your overall well being? If something during the treatment happens and our gut tells us something isn’t right, we should have the full right to end that treatment. It won’t be easy to do, but in the long run, it could save not only a career but also mental anguish. This is also a way we can protect and maintain our personal integrity.

Since we are also expected to maintain a safe and healthy work environment, have we taken the time to think how that affects us as opposed to our patients?

In my past career before becoming an RMT, I worked in an industrial setting dealing with health and safety. The one thing that always came up was our right as employees to have a safe work environment. Part of those rights was the ability to deny unsafe work. If you were told to do a job but considered it to be unsafe, you had the right to deny doing it.

While you had to give sound reasons for why you considered it unsafe, the company could not force you to do it until the safety concerns were rectified.

In this case, if a patient is doing something that is setting off some red flags for you, it is your right to demand a safe workplace environment and in turn should be able to deny treatment to a patient if you think your safety is at risk.

Photo by: JESHOOTS

Working Alone

This is another one of those areas that is often overlooked because we are either self-employed or work as contractors.

There was an article being circulated a month or so ago, which highlighted a massage therapist getting killed on the job as she was doing mobile, home care work (I think it later came out that she was working under less scrupulous employment) with no one else around.

If someone was working as a mobile therapist by themselves, or even working alone in a clinic, there are certain safety guidelines set out through WorkSafe or department of labour that stipulate conditions that are to be met to protect someone in this case.

Some of the guidelines that are set out in order to protect someone working alone or in isolation are as follows:

Develop and implement a written procedure for checking the well-being of a worker assigned to work alone or in isolation.
Procedure for checking a worker’s well-being must include the time interval between checks and the procedure to follow in case the worker cannot be contacted, including provisions for emergency rescue.
A person must be designated to establish contact with the worker at predetermined intervals and the results must be recorded by the person.
Time intervals for checking a worker’s well-being must be developed in consultation with the worker assigned to work alone or in isolation.

So, if you are a clinic owner, think of how this applies to some of the people working in your clinics. Are there times in the day when they are at the clinic alone? Is anyone calling in to check on them? Are there emergency procedures in place if something were to happen to one of them?

How about for those of you who do mobile massage on your own? Do you have a check in system before and after your treatments? Does someone know your schedule for the day and the addresses you’ll be working at? Do you have a contact in case of emergencies?

This doesn’t have to be an expensive complicated endeavour, even if it is regular contact throughout the day to a loved one or co-worker, who can regularly check in with you, as long as there is constant contact with someone.

However, there are companies out there who offer this kind of check in service. When I used to work alone I would have to call in to a company every two hours. If they didn’t hear from me, they would try to make contact. If contact failed they would dispatch emergency help to come and check on me (fortunately this never happened). There are now even some phone apps available like this one to handle these types of scenarios. The whole point of this post was not intended to scare anyone, but as self-employed people, we rarely take the time to think about possible safety issues within our work. We are trained to constantly think about what is safe and appropriate for our patients, when in reality isn’t our safety just as, if not more important?

Therapeutic Exercise And Inversion Ankle Sprains

July 24, 2017/in First Aid, First Responder, Massage, Massage Clinic, Massage Therapist, Massage Therapy/by Jamie Johnston

When she came in, you could see the pain on her face.

Wincing with each step toward the treatment room, her limp was noticeable as she was protecting the ankle.

As I helped her sit down, of course, my first aid protocols popped into my head first, so I ran through the typical questions:

“What happened?”

“Did you hit your head at all?”

“Did you hear a pop in your ankle?”

“How are your pain levels?”

Fortunately, she didn’t hit her head and there was no “pop.”

She had just rolled her ankle and had a pretty typical inversion sprain, the swelling was already noticeable. What made it worse for her was the stress and worry of whether she could run as it was her favourite thing to do.

She wanted to get that ankle back to her normal activities ASAP.

Helping Protect The Injury

As I mentioned, the first thing I thought of was the first aid protocols when it comes to an injury.

This particular incident was obviously in the acute stage, so all the RICE protocols are the first thing I thought of. While there has been lots of debate online about using ice and rest, I still believe that in the acute stage it’s the best way to go.

Where I have changed my opinion is how long to use RICE.

In the past, we would use ice and rest for way longer (at least I did) than was probably appropriate. During the inflammation phase, (which is the first 48 hours) it is important to rest and support the tissues involved in the injury but still, keep up with some movement and continue to load the tissue within pain tolerances.

Since most of you probably already know how to rest, ice, and elevate I thought we would go over the compression portion and demonstrate how to properly wrap and inversion sprain, to give it some support and help control swelling over that first 48 hours.

Properly wrapping an ankle like this can give it that little bit of extra support (and confidence) in order to help the patient continue to move and also help with pain management.

Loading The Tissue

More and more over the past few years, we have been hearing and seeing more research on the importance of loading tissues post injury.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the stories about how they get patients up and moving almost immediately after surgeries.

Research is showing that loading the tissue or causing mechanical tension (muscular force) is actually a way to help influence wound healing. As the injury enters into the repair phase we can start to load the tissue even more.

This, of course, depends on pain and weight bearing abilities. If the patient can do full weight bearing pain-free you should be able to load the tissue more than if they can’t do full weight bearing. If they can’t bear full weight, giving the patient something to hold for balance will help decrease the amount of weight we are loading into the tissue and help with a decrease in pain, but still have the ability to move and load the tissue.

Here is an example of how you can begin some weight bearing exercises and load for an inversion sprain.

Once the patient feels more comfortable and pain has decreased, you can then progress them to this kind of exercise in order to load the tissue more:

As the patient continues to progress, here is a 3rd progression you can use to load into the injury more:

It is important to work within your patients pain tolerance when doing any kind of exercise, but one study showed that doing isometric contractions actually helped to decrease pain in patients with a tendinopathy. While an inversion sprain isn’t a tendinopathy, we can use it as a reminder that it is okay to load the tissue early in the healing process. So, in addition to doing some massage therapy, actually loading the tissue will not only help strengthen the area but also assist in decreasing pain for the patient. However you decide to set up your treatment plan, these are movements that can be taught in the clinic and incorporated into your treatment but also given as homecare exercises to help the patient progress. For those of you who don’t have “exercise” in your scope of practice, let’s just call it “therapeutic movement!”