"That whole area is completely solid.."
Me: Is that bad?
"Erm. Yes."
Oh.
"Those 3 joints are locked, so the muscles have tightened around them."
Oh.
"Just move onto your left side for me. There are 2 more lower down that have locked as well. I'm going to try and release them if thats ok. If it gets too painful let me know."
CRACK
For the last two weeks, my upper back has been pretty painful. I say pretty painful, I mean really fucking painful. My shoulders hurt if anyone touches them and after about 30 minutes at my desk I'm in pain. I hit breaking point yesterday and the combination of pain and nagging by co-workers pushed me into making an appointment with my Dad's Osteopath. the conversation above is a rough transcript of the session.
Basically, there are about 3 joints in my upper back and 2 in my mid back that had locked. In my upper back, the muscles around those joints had tightened to protect them. This causes pain.
The 2 in my mid back weren't as bound by tightened muscles and she said she'd be able to release them. She did this by making them crack.
Let me tell you, that cracking sound is one of the most scary things I've ever heard. It doesn't hurt, but you do feel it. It sounds like you're being snapped in two.
She seemed to think it was an accumulative thing, gradually getting worse over time until it started to hurt all the time. Apparently, some stretching exercises and a couple more sessions and I'll be ok.
The muscles were tighter on my left side, which is the side I tend to carry things on. A few hours later and my back feels fine, but my left shoulder is really sore.
I guess thats what I get for not doing any sort of exercise!
