CASE STUDY 5 - ARTHRITIC KNEE - LOSS OF MOBILITY

68 year old female, loss of mobility due to knee pain

Client used to be fairly active and enjoyed long walks, but gave up due to pain in right knee. This has been diagnosed as arthritus. Now too painful to walk on, but client doesn't want to have replacement yet.

As massage will have no effect on the arthritic joint the usual method of dealing with cases such as this is to work above and below the effected joint. this loosens the muscles that have become tight and painful due to inactivity, restoring some mobility. Once the client has some mobility back then a combination of exercise and massage leads to more mobility and a much better quality of life.

Unfortunately for this client, her muscles were so tender that any massage was very painful and had little effect.

In this case I decided to use the Bowen Technique (see treatment page). She was quite uncomfortable after the first treatment, but I had explained that this may happen, and why, and by the third treatment was much improved and had started taking short walks.

Once you get a client to this stage a lot of the progress is down to them. If you can start, and keep, using a joint properly it strengthens itself. This was the case with this client and she has a much inproved quality of life and is much fitter and happier. She still returns for top up treatments every 2/3 months.