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This article is from the [alt.backrubs] Frequently Asked Questions, posted to alt.backrubs newsgroup. Maintained by Jamie Blustein with numerous contributions by others.

4.6 I've got the following symptoms. What do you advise?

The symptoms could be the result of something serious. A health care professional should be consulted for a diagnosis. This newsgroup is read by many people with great talent, however none of them can diagnose or treat ailments or injuries solely over a network connection. If there is a serious problem then it should be dealt with promptly by a health care professional.

Richard Karasik advises:

If you insist on asking for advice then you'll have to provide some details. For example, have you ever been diagnosed with any osseous deformities, e.g. 6 fingers on one hand, arthritis or any ligamentous tears? Do you exercise regularly? If so, what exercises do you do? When was the first time you noticed the pain, what were you doing in the 24 hours prior to that. Do you have headaches associated with the pain? Describe the pain in detail -- is it sharp, radiating or local?

The description you give may suggest muscle tests you can do yourself to isolate the areas of dysfunction -- the causality you will have to puzzle out further than that -- but even isolating the muscle groups affected and determining how they are affected will help you when you consult (in person) with a health care professional.

Terry Norman advises:

Soft tissue massage may be only one of several types of modalities necessary to bring about a complete rehabilitation of an injury. You can't tell exactly what the appropriate therapy is to pursue without a complete physical exam by a competent physician. It's not always a waste of time and money to consult one before starting on a course of physical rehabilitation.

If you are seeking advice about treatment not diagnosis then you might find useful information in the archive. At the time of this writing (April 1995) there are files about: back pain, fibromyalgia, wrist and hand pain, massaging bruises and knots, neck aches, scoliosis, massage as an adjunct to cancer treatments, headaches and chronic pain. There may be much more by now. Information about the archive is in question 5.1.2.

 

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• next: 5.1.1 The [extinct] backrubs exchange

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massage, backrub, faq, body pampering, body work