I've spent a lot of time trying to decide how best to go about sharing my story. While I will be jumping around a bit through these moments of sharing I am going to start at the very beginning of my fasciablaster journey.
After years of having my pain get progressively worse I was at the physical therapists office again. I had been seeing her for several years with no improvement...you may ask why I was still going when there was no improvement and the answer is simple...everytime I stopped going I got worse. So, no improvement was better than getting worse and I continued to go. On this one unremarkable afternoon she came in and said, "I just finished this class on a treatment that is a little outside of the box...how do you feel about trying something new?" That day I walked out of her office with just a little less pain than I had had the day before. After 3 treatments I made her help me write down the name of the type of therapy she was using on me..."MYOFASCIAL RELEASE." This was the beginning of my metamorphosis.
I googled...I called people...I texted...I was determined to find more information. One call I made to my friend/therapist Michelle at the Creative Healing Center in Livermore CA led to the answer that would change my life. She said that yes she did a type of myofascial release when she worked on me but that she had just found this new tool thingy that she was checking out that claimed to put this treatment into the hands of the client. My next visit with her introduced me to a prototype of the fasciablaster. My initial reaction was resistance. It wasn't as pleasant as a massage when she used it one me and I was there for my massage. I kept looking for other alternatives but that fasciablaster was popping up on my Facebook page regularly. I went through all the usual blockages to taking the step...it cost too much money...it's not going to work anyway...it's a waste of time...it's a waste of money...I can just hear my husband now....but after about a month I decided to bite the bullet and buy it. That step was the moment I CHOSE HOPE...hope that it wouldn't be a waste...hope that it would in fact work...hope that I could have a productive life again...hope that I wasn't going to die from the pain.
The wait for the fasciablaster to arrive was long...not in days it took to deliver but in the torment my brain put me through. The battle between the pessimistic fatalist inside me and the new little spark of hope that had begun to bloom was vicious and took up much of my energy. It's a little like in the TV shows when you see the little devil and the little angel on someones shoulders distracting you from what is actually happening in the show to see what is happening on the inside of the character. It is NOT near as cute and funny when that is taking over your actual life and you can no longer focus on the things that are actually occurring outside of your mind in the here and now.
That box finally came and I could not wait for bedtime. I tucked my son in and got into the bath to heat my tissue up...(step 1 of the fasciablaster protocol). Then after getting into my pajamas I put a little oil on my arm and began to rub the blaster on my forearm in the way I had watched in the instruction videos. Y'all it was like the 7th circle of hell! I could barely catch my breath! OH MY GODDESS it hurt!! I made the most embarrassing high pitched squeal I have ever heard emit from my body as I tried to blast a section larger than two inches square...and after about 45-60 seconds I just could not stand it another second. I collapsed onto my bed, curled up and cried. I cried for the pain. I cried for the lost hope. I cried because the fatalist was right. I cried because I was half convinced I was going to die from the pain and 100% convinced I wanted to die rather than continue living with the kind of pain I was in everyday of my life. And I cried because my son deserved better.
PAY ATTENTION: This is where it gets GOOD!!!
The next day a MIRACLE ARRIVED! I woke up and I didn't have my constant companion migraine...and body aches were taking a day to be mellow and mild. My energy was astounding and I was able to do everything a normal person could do in a single day...things that would usually take me weeks to get accomplished took just ONE day! I was so stoked!! So...this got me to thinking...how bad had that pain really been? Cause lets be real...if 60 seconds of torture emitted this type of response from my body...maybe just maybe...IT WAS WORTH IT!!?!!!
So that is how my journey of finding the balance between it hurts and it hurts so good began...and while I have used many things along this journey I have to say the fasciablaster is by far one of the most important tools I have to keep my healthy and functioning.