arthritic hands

[Mary C]

I've been having a lot of success lately with severe OA hands. Even starting to shrink the fusiform swelling on the PIP's and decreasing the size of the Heberden's nodes on the DIP's.

I do skin stretches down the arm using an Upledger LDT pattern for about 5-10 min. each arm. The first session may take a little longer. It's a joy to see the relief on patients' faces when they first move their fingers. Since I have not yet touched their hands, they can readily accept the explanation that we have to calm down the hyperactive centers in the brain.

The beauty of it all is that they can then do the same at home. It's a non-specific treatment for a non-specific pain.

Continue LDT stlye skin mobs down into the hand and onto the fingers. The untouchable IP's are now soothed to the point where you can work on the thickened fibrous tissues around the joints. Once again, patients do this for themselves in between treatments. Steady progress.

I used to steam :angry::angry::angry: when patients told me they had been told by their doctors they would "just have to learn to live with it." Now I don't bother. A little gleeful cackle is just fine.:D

Thanks to Diane, Upledger no longer gets the credit. The nervous system does.

The Arthritis Society is gonna love this one!

[Diane]

Way to go Mary - give credit where it's due. Are you going to publish? You should.

[Mary C]

R U kidding???? I KNOW how much work it is to do the write up.

Let me get some workshops under my belt first. Then I might reconsider. Besides, this is more of a poster thing. It's really that simple.

[matchupitchu]

I do skin stretches down the arm using an Upledger LDT pattern for about 5-10 min. each arm.

Hi Mary
Good to read simple ways to releave pain and to restore the motion of these patients.:clap2:
Could you explain what the Upledger LDT pattern is or what it is not?

[Diane]

R U kidding???? I KNOW how much work it is to do the write up.

Let me get some workshops under my belt first. Then I might reconsider. Besides, this is more of a poster thing. It's really that simple.

Yes, I know how much work it is. I have nothing published yet, and have been working on two projects over the last two years. So all that means is, the sooner you start the better. :D

I think that publishing a poster counts as having published. :)

[Mary C]

OK guide me to the guidelines for postering, then.

As for LDT strokes, we were shown "flat-hand" with the hand all supple. Feel the direction in which the lymph is flowing (now don't choke, Diane) and follow it. The flow does not necessarily head for the nearest concentration of lymph nodes.

In some areas, there is not enough room for the hand, so we used the fingers, the tips, the sides, the palmar surface of the index.

I always try to stroke in the usual direction of lymph flow when I am showing patients how to do this for themselves. I do not try to get them sensing the lymph flow.

Any one who wants more info, look on a standard lymph flow chart for the general directions of flow.

Have fun!

[Diane]

Hi Mary,
Guidelines for posters depend on where you want to show it, I think..
I think it goes something like this: You see a conference where you'd like to put your poster. You send in your ideas and ask if you can submit a poster display. The organizers get back to you with the dimensions you can use to make your poster with. Then you make your stuff and pictures and power point bullets all fit inside the space you've been allotted.

There is a power point program that you can use, I think, to arrange the elements of the poster so they will fit.

[Mary C]

Thanks Diane.