On my third visit with Shmuel Tatz, PT, PhD he asked where was I experiencing the most pain. Quite frankly, even though I felt I had made progress, I couldn’t assess myself between the intermittent pain in my head or my knee, or the things I hadn’t told him about yet. So I asked him, would he please evaluate and decide what would be the priority for the day.
He first conducted more delicate work on my head, incredibly mild. He touched most areas of my forehead, jaw and entire skull. He put his hands above my head and seemed to ‘brush’ the energy away from my head. It was super-relaxing. Then he focused his hands on my left knee, moving it to and fro, in all directions, more of a medium touch. He told me to keep both knees moving, gently, through each day. Then, while working on my knee, he started exploring my stomach and abdomen, probing, pressing, and adjusting. Digging deeply with his hands. He did all this without words.
I was amazed that he was exploring my organs because I hadn’t yet told him about the diagnosis I had earlier in the year. In the medical community’s exploration into my headaches I was referred to a gastroenterologist who performed an endoscopy. The result: Mild hiatal hernia, mild gastritis, and mild acid reflux. Acid reflux in some medical circles is also called The Great Imitator: The acid reflux can take on other symptoms such as headaches, heartaches, asthma etc. Thereafter I tried two forms of medication. First Omeprazole: I immediately experienced severe side effects, chills flu heart, deep migraine etc. Then tried taking a half a dose. Still the same side effects. Then came another medication, Sucralfate. Also caused minor side effects. Simultaneously in my research, I learned from some professionals that these medications are just blockers to the problem, like putting masking tape on to keep everything together. These meds were never going to be curative. Plus my stomach was bloated, not from overeating, but something to do with my GI tract. I hadn’t figured it out, nor had anyone else.
Tatz, without my telling him about all this, was in full exploration. I knew better than to interrupt him while he was working on my knees, abdomen and stomach. He showed me more mild knee exercises while lying on my back, again gentle movements to keep the knees moving and different directions. “Hold your knees to your chest gently for three minutes.” He left the room only to come back with an old fashioned looking machine, I believe it’s called a Diapulse Machine. Looks somewhat like an old fashioned clunky heating pad that he wrapped around my lower abdomen. He turned it on and it began to vibrate, he asked that I put my hands on top of the contraption while I received this treatment. He closed the door and while I received this vibration, I listened to one of Bach’s piano concertos and looked out the window at the late spring day, flowers in bloom, towering trees. I was relaxing. Truly relaxing. My body and my mind were in sync.
After the treatment, I asked him if the stomach treatment was connected to the knees. He reminded me, “Everything’s connected.” I felt a little guilty. I mean, my body was on high alert in all directions. It was hard for me to keep up with what the physical symptom of the day was, let alone anyone else.
Tatz explained, “Most people treat their cars better than their bodies. You take your car in for a tune-up; you don’t wait for the car to be broken down on the side of the road. If people would treat their bodies the same as their cars, if people would go in for their personal tune-ups, then they would never become broken down.”
I left that day, beyond-relaxed. With the expertise of Tatz on my side, I was hopeful that my body parts might become whole again – that my body’s engine would purr again. And when my full body restoration happens, I’ll look forward to going back to Tatz for tune-ups.
by J. Baldwin