Sunday, June 2, 2013

Consuming antidepressants and Lyrica it is not always the solution.

Recently, a familiar  physician,  referred to me a 53 years old male, CEO of a huge corporation.  The referring physician, who is a board-certified rheumatologist, diagnosed this patient with having a major depressive disorder. According to the physician, in addition to classic clinical depression symptoms, the patient also suffered from pain all over the body, tension headaches, sleep disorders and other  similar to fibromyalgia symptoms. He also said:”  However, during my initial examination I couldn't discover the typical 11 tender points, typical to fibromyalgia cases and necessary to establish fibromyalgia diagnosis.

Being on good terms with the doctor, I had no problem discussing the clinical picture frankly.  Therefore I said that if blood tests were done and autoimmune diseases were excluded, then, because of the absence of typical 11 tender points, the disorder isn't fibromyalgia.  I asked him then if, practically, clinical depression and major depressive disorders is essentially the same diagnosis?
He rejected this generalization because major depressive disorders symptoms include pain all over the body.

When this person appeared in my office, just by looking at him, I felt, that emotionally he was hurting, to exactly the same degree or more then from outside. He really was lost.

This session, including the initial evaluation and treatment, was scheduled for approximately one hour and 10 minutes. I have asked him if he would have more time to talk to me and then to receive the treatment. He agreed to do whatever’s necessary to make him feel better.
I called to my next client and reschedule her appointment for a later time. I asked him to provide me with all the details: describe the symptoms, the time when these symptoms appeared, and whether any emotional or physical trauma took place prior to symptoms appearance. I barely finished my phrase as he started crying.

In total he suffered from this devastating symptoms for almost 7 months. It started some headaches, minor pains all over the body, sleep disorders, waking up at 3 AM and not being able to go back to sleep. The last two months he was constantly catching a flu.

Little by little his symptoms got much worse. As he described, his job is very stressful, stockholders expect huge profits and his wife decided to leave him. I asked him how he was performing at work.  He said that he has to be on top of the game.  That didn't sound like a response of clinically depressed person. Clinically depressed people cannot fight simply because they “have to perform.” I asked him how he reacts on taking antidepressant? He said that he started it only for the lasts two weeks and described it as having horrible effect on him. He even started to hallucinate as well as when he took the drug Lyrica, it's really make him feel not like himself.

I advised him to talk to his doctor about it. He was of an opinion that everyone was thinking of him as being crazy so he didn't want to bother anyone anymore, and just limited the drugs intake.

I was amazed how this smart and well-educated person can feel so lost. Obviously, sickness and life situations sometime can get the better of us.
I proposed to call to his doctor, discuss discontinuation of taking this medication and insisted on him doing it immediately. From my experiences I knew, “tomorrow could be too late.” In this situation taking this medication can cause suicide. From my office in his presence and with his permission I have called his doctor. As I have anticipated his doctor ordered him to stop this medication immediately.
Pondering over the clinical picture of this client, I came to the conclusion that stress and its side effects significantly disturbed the amount of lymph drainage. Accumulation of toxic metabolic waste within the body triggers the increase in muscular tensions.  Exactly like in cases of fibromyalgia it leads to ATP crisis, dropping pH, activating  pain analyzing  system and producing symptoms similar to clinical depression.

I started the treatment by checking tensions within muscles and fascia. The tension in fascia was acceptable, normal, but muscles where very tense and contained many trigger points. I have explained him what the acceleration of Lymph drainage techniques does and proposed to dedicate first five treatments to detoxification.  To him this approach seemed reasonable.
 In the first week five times I have provided him with lymph drainage procedure. To my surprise, during the first week the clinical picture changed for the better. I actually expected that some evidence of improvement would come much later.

His mood changed for the better. He told me: ”Boris I’m going to make it.” When I asked him whether he had any doubt, he paused and said that the day before he came to me, he had doubts.  

To me this was a scary moment. Considering his complaint on what this medications caused, and knowing how many people committed suicide, mentally I thanked the Almighty for the privilege to be in right time at right place - for the call to the doctor and the request to immediately stop the medication.

The next two weeks I provided 8 full body medical stress management massages, as well as have addressed the trigger points. I also advised him the home program of self-massage and we talked frequently so that he wouldn’t feel he’s alone in this struggle.  He thanked me, told me of his progress, and of him being able to better perform his daily functions and return of the ability to be a good father.

Tomorrow I will see him again for 12 to15 treatment just to sustain results. Please click this link to read my article on Lymph drainage http://medicalmassage-edu.com/articles/47-article31

If you decide to read it, I would like you to be aware on typo with in article. Instead of inspiration, you should  read the inhalation.

This link is to article on fibromyalgia. http://medicalmassage-edu.com/articles/31-article15

I have no doubt that if I haven’t addressed those symptoms then, little by little, this condition could have evolved into Fibromyalgia or Fibromyositis, being a chronic, low-grade inflammatory condition of the muscle, fascia and other connective tissue, resulting in calcification, adhesions and tension within fascia and muscles.

You are also welcome, to read about my DVDs where I teach all techniques I have applied in this successful treatment. http://medicalmassage-edu.com/dvds-only/69
and post any questions.

Best wishes.
Boris.


PS. No doubt, this client can afford paying for his treatment. Interesting enough, when talking to me on the phone on Thursday, he said: ”…your treatment is expensive, but I calculated that your treatments are actually saved me money.” He simply calculated, how much money he would have spent for co-payments  medications, deductibles. 

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