Monday 18 March 2019

Spa Case Study


Identification
Name
Age
Type
Jessica
Approx. 21
Wrist sprain / undiagnosed tendonitis


History
Normally fit and well but over the last few months, performance at basic routine tasks has deteriorated.  Some abnormal behaviour has presented itself, mainly in the form of moaning.  The moans describe a consistent burning pain but worse with added pressure or twisting.  Picking hooves is particularly painful, giving a sharper more unbearable pain.  Lifting a lot of weight or applying a lot of pressure also results in a sharper pain.


Initial issue, reason for visiting Therapy
Luckily, Jessica is here at the Equine Therapy Centre every day, so really should be making use of the cold water saline spa.

Diagnostics
No official diagnosis.   Just repetitive moaning about how sore the wrist has become.  And the pain has increased over a time period of a few months.

Treatment
COLD WATER SALINE SPA!

Results
Less pain!

Those of you that have been to the Equine Therapy Centre with your horse over the last few months may have had the ‘pleasure’ of hearing me complain about the pain in my wrist!  It seemed to be getting progressively worse too, starting as an intermittent dull ache leading to a pretty much permanent pain that was incredibly sharp on any lifting, twisting and particularly in tasks that require applying pressure such as picking feet.  It occurred to me that perhaps I should try submerging my wrist through the hatch into the freezing salty water of the spa to see if it would make it any better.  So, one lunch time, a couple of weeks ago now, I made the time and plunged my right arm through the hatch into the icy water, down to my elbow.  In all honestly, I thought that it might sting a bit for a second or two but that I would easily be able to brave it out for ten minutes or so!  How wrong was I?!!!  Wow!  It was really cold!  It was agony!  I could only manage 20 seconds or so at a time before yanking my arm back out again.  I could feel the cold blood going back up my arm into my shoulder and over my back and it was surprisingly painful!  But I persevered and kept dunking it back in, all the time keeping an eye on a stopwatch to see how long I could hold it under for the next time.  After about two minutes of intermittent dunking and yanking back out, my arm went numb and it became bearable so I could keep it there for ten minutes or so.

Afterwards, I made sure to wash the salt off my now bright red arm, and went back into the office with it stinging just a little as it slowly started to warm up.  That same afternoon, the pain was noticeably improved.  I mean, dramatically improved.  It had got to the point that my wrist was burning and aching at rest, but instantly after the cold water spa, the pain was much much less.  So I persevered with the cold therapy over a few days (whenever I got time), and I can honestly say the pain has more or less gone. 

Obviously, there has been no official diagnosis, no sophisticated scan images to be able to make any comparisons and no scientific element to this study at all!  But at least I can give a first-hand account of the dramatic change in the level of pain that I have felt.  I am sure the ideal would have been a prescribed period of rest however in my job it is simply not possible for me to be able to rest my dominant arm!  But this has been a really interesting and valuable experience to be able to feel first-hand how well the cold water spa has worked to reduce the pain.  I am sure that if I was more consistent with using the spa and more frequent with it too, the pain and soreness would be completely eliminated.

One of our previous blogs talks about the benefits of the cold water saline spa for horses.  Have a look http://mcequinehydrotherapy.blogspot.com/2017/09/cold-water-hydrotherapy-spa.html. But when it comes to horses, it’s important to remember that not all horses will tolerate it!  It is probably the most risky of all our hydrotherapies if the horse takes a dislike to it.  But, if tolerated and used correctly, it certainly has excellent healing properties and produces tremendous results.



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