Scapula

I was extremely lucky to meet and treat a man yesterday who was meant to have died a long time ago from an inoperable cancer growth on his lungs. He had radical radiation treatment that saved his life but the radiation burns on his insides created a little havoc.

 

The part that was incredible for me as a therapist was that the radiation had burnt most of the muscle away on his Scapula leaving just bone. When you tapped it with your finger made a sound like tapping on a hollow door. Muscles were still attached to his Scapula but pretty much just around the outside and none across the top surface. He still had the use of the shoulder and his fingers which I find absolutely incredible (how awesome are our bodies at adapting.)

 

His reasons for seeing me were his neck & back pains. I gave him his treatment and treated him like I would have if he had have had muscle in all the right places. I felt like things were going pretty well.

 

I sat him up and he looked pretty good but his shoulders were still a bit uneven. I knew I needed to use the Teres Minor move to even the shoulders, but there was really no muscle there to speak of. So I thought why not give it a go anyway. I put my 2 fingers on the hold points of the scapula and I swear I was on bone in the chooks foot point of the move, and on a tiny piece of muscle at the teres minor point. The shoulder very noticeably moved back and down in my hands like a melting moment. I nearly wet myself with excitement, did a little happy dance & I lost all sense of professionalism, lol.

 

The good news is he felt a lot better after the treatment and I feel so lucky to have a met a person who shared something so extraordinary with me. I am happy to admit I felt like a kid in a candy shop, I loved every minute of the whole experience and I have not stopped bubbling with all the wonder and awe in the world since.

 

When I was at the very beginning of learning the Emmett Technique I really didn’t know much about the human body and anatomy at all. I had a man come and see me that did not have a clavicle bone, he had lost it in an accident and was having trouble turning his head.The only thing I had to help him at that stage of my training was a move that you are meant to make along the clavicle bone. So I thought why not, made the move where I thought the clavicle should be and his neck could turn again.

 

With my knowledge of anatomy now I would never have tried either of the moves that I used in my above blog. I am so thankful for my clavicle man, it was an awesome learning lesson at the right time. WHY NOT!!!!!

 

Thanks for reading

Rusty