Tips for healing inflamed sinews/tendons?

[Bluefront]

Hey

 

I was jumping of this pretty high cliff into the water and the impact stretched and damaged my tendons and sinews around the chest/neck/shoulder/upper back (mainly at the center of the chest where the ribs are connected though) and it hurts like hell while doing any physical activity, even deep breathing is painful.

 

Doctor recommended ibuprofen to ease the inflammation and I'm ok with taking just that. I'm wondering if there are any eastern methods to speed up this healing, such as focusing on some specific meridian or some qi gong postures that could help. For various reasons I have to be completely rehabilitated in 2 weeks.

 

Thanks!

[Gerard]

Acupuncture/tui na massage around the affected area, & herbs (Radix dipsaci/teasel root).

 

All the best in your recovery.

[cheya]

Doctor recommended ibuprofen to ease the inflammation and I'm ok with taking just that.

 

You could check out Earthing via earthing.com. Researchers used thermograms to demonstrate dramatic reductions in inflammation in 40 minutes! The US team used earthing/grounding in the Tour de France to speed healing from injuries.

Worth a try? Or at least a look-see, especially if you need to be over it so soon.

 

My computer is nuts this morning, so I'm having trouble finding you a useful link, but this looks like it might be a good one:

http://www.earthinginstitute.net/studies/thermographic_histories_2004.pdf

 

Do let us know whatever you find that works!

 

Adeha

[Bluefront]

Thanks.

 

I'm already doing some massage where I can and I'll give the grounding a try.

 

Is there any specific posture that would increase circulation around the chest?

I shouldn't do any flowing movements yet, so I'm really hoping there is some good still posture for this.

[Ya Mu]

Hey

 

I was jumping of this pretty high cliff into the water and the impact stretched and damaged my tendons and sinews around the chest/neck/shoulder/upper back (mainly at the center of the chest where the ribs are connected though) and it hurts like hell while doing any physical activity, even deep breathing is painful.

 

Doctor recommended ibuprofen to ease the inflammation and I'm ok with taking just that. I'm wondering if there are any eastern methods to speed up this healing, such as focusing on some specific meridian or some qi gong postures that could help. For various reasons I have to be completely rehabilitated in 2 weeks.

 

Thanks!

A medical qigong practitioner could possibly help immensely. Or Asian Bodywork therapist. Perhaps an acupuncturist could help. Salt bath could possibly help.

[gendao]

A medical qigong practitioner could possibly help immensely. Or Asian Bodywork therapist.

In addition, I would also recommend lymph massage and LED light therapy.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

borderline overdosing on vitamin C speeds tissue regrowth immensely. The body can only use about 500mg a day and too much might cause an upset stomach eventually, but for short periods of time like when trying to heal, you could do 400-500 per day divided by three doses. It doesn't sound like tore anything, but it might help still..

[Otis]

Hey

 

I was jumping of this pretty high cliff into the water and the impact stretched and damaged my tendons and sinews around the chest/neck/shoulder/upper back (mainly at the center of the chest where the ribs are connected though) and it hurts like hell while doing any physical activity, even deep breathing is painful.

 

Doctor recommended ibuprofen to ease the inflammation and I'm ok with taking just that. I'm wondering if there are any eastern methods to speed up this healing, such as focusing on some specific meridian or some qi gong postures that could help. For various reasons I have to be completely rehabilitated in 2 weeks.

 

Thanks!

Hi Bluefront,

 

I have a lot of experience with healing muscle and connective tissue in myself.

 

What I would do, is to make the injury into my moving meditation. Find a good, non-stressful posture (even lying down), relax, and then slowly, lovingly, activate the areas that hurt, through movement. Get the pain to be just hot enough to be intense, but not enough that my system shouts "no!" at me. Basically, I listen for the "no!" and back off, just a smidge, and make that my arena of play.

 

And I emphasize "play", because it is better, IME, to be guided not by technique or concepts, but by the actual parameters of the injury. Every injury is unique, and the body's signals are there, precisely to guide me toward self-healing.

 

Also, because that level of intense (but not freak-out) pain, can actually be a very joyful experience. If it is not, then I'd recommend slowing down, paying still more attention. If I'm tripping over my body's "no!" signals, then I'm not listening enough. The more I can utterly and joyfully "fall into" the sheer sensation of the pain with my awareness, the faster the injury heals.

 

Good luck!

 

Edit to add: once I learned how joyful it can be to pay attention to injury, and how easy it is to heal myself, it totally changed my relationship to injury, risk, and fear. So, this (and all) injuries can be true gifts, if they reveal the body's joyful capacity to heal itself.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Otis

[ChiDragon]

Let it go for few days until you can do deep breathing again. Then, concentrate on your deep and slow breathing and focus on the pained area, while laying down, for fast healing. Take your breath to a deepest point where there is no pain and stop there as your threshold for a baseline. Repeat your breathing process until your breaths can go deeper and deeper to pass the threshold point. If you can have your breath reach the abdomen without any more pain, then you are home free...

Edited July 8, 2011 by ChiDragon

[Bluefront]

Thanks these are all very excellent suggestions. I don't know of any qi gong specialists or bodyworkers here. Even if I did I would consider it a bit too much. It's not like this is killing me. I also prefer to take care of this myself.

 

I meditated and focused on experiencing the pain with calm and equanimity. So far it has seemed to help a bit. Or it's the ibuprofen doing it's thing. Probably both. I'll try tomorrow when I have no ibuprofen in my system so I can experience the pain as it is. I'll continue with it daily anyhow until I'm good.

 

I think standing meditation in Wuji hugging tree posture would increase circulation in the upper chest area (correct me if I'm wrong). I'll definitely give this a try in the morning though.

 

Thanks again. Can't believe I forgot about just experiencing the pain with equanimity. Sometimes the most simple things are forgotten.