Old Medicine techniques

[pioneer]

This is topic is based on an account a friend told me about, whom I had not seen in many years. He was playing soccer and tore something in his knee. It was hard to walk because of the knee pain, so he consulted a doctor to schedule surgery. The first date just so happened to coincide with his planned honeymoon in Belize, so he and his doctor agreed to do it after he got back. The doctor gave him a cane to hobble around.

 

One of the things he and his new wife planned to see in Belize, where Mayans ruins. He was afraid to climb the steep stairs to one of the temples, since he didn't trust is leg. He was content to wait at the bottom. The tour guide, who was this short muscular Belize woman said to trust her and he would be able to climb to the top. She led him into one of the lower ruins and started to manipulate his knees and the back of his legs with painful pressure with her thumbs. She also taps the bottom of his feet with here fingers. He said it really hurt, but she kept asking him to trust her. She did both legs. After she was done she said get up and walk. The pain was totally gone and he was able to climb the stairs. The people at the top thought it was a tourist stunt, since his tour group had seen him hobbling in pain with his crutch.

 

For the rest of his honeymoon his leg was good as new. When he got back to the states, he jumped off something high and injured the same leg again causing another tear in his knee. He was always rough with toys and himself. His surgery date was still on, so he decided to go through with the operation. When it was done, the doctor told him his knee had something he never saw before. The original tear had been rolled up and tucked in an odd place. He told the doctor about the Belize woman and her technique. The doctor walked way silently. It was not faith healing, but an actual old school technique that was not evasive.

[YT2095]

up until This point:

The original tear had been rolled up and tucked in an odd place.

it sounded a lot like Acupressure, and anecdotally I can say it and more specifically acupuncture can be quite effective in some pain manegement albeit temporary in my case.

but "rolled up and tucked in an odd place" sounds a bit, how shall we say... Strange? and certainly in need of more Accurate elaboration.

[Ulna]

I find this really interesting, because so often in our pill popping culture we lack these simple, effective and low cost techniques.

In fact recently i was visiting a relative in hospital who had been extremely dehydrated, prior to her admission the family had called me for advice (Not because i'm a doctor, but i have a small amount of medical knowledge and the actual doctor was four hours late.) Because there had been vomiting and squits, i said pinch her skin and see how long it takes to go back to normal, it took about thirty seconds and i said call an ambulance as the doctor has been ages and with a 74 year old woman don't take any chances when she's dehydrated etc. Anyway at the hospital I asked if they used the skin pinch test and they actually didn't know what i was talking about.

I was shocked, technology is brilliant, but i think it is really important to know basic techniques like that, because sometimes technology doesn't work, or if there was some crisis and the hospitals were inundated... well i can imagine scenario's where it would be useful anyway.

But i think we should have more of this stuff, sounds like your friend with the bad knee was saved a lot of pain and no expensive pain killers.

[DrP]

I have mates that have had torn cruciate ligs in their knees playing football or Rugby and they have been out for months with physio and ops. It can take about 6 months to heal apparently. I am sure I have had this myself more than once and have let it heal in a few weeks of rest. Example: I went to a ballroom dance class with my wife and we learnt to waltz. When we got home we we practiced a bit indoors. We did a rather fast waltz turn on the carpet and I was wearing trainers. Needles to say, my body turned 180 degrees but my foot stuck to the carpet and my knee joint twisted RIGHT round. I heard a quiet but alarming grinding sound come from the joint and I hit the ground with a girly scream. Honestly - I could not walk at all. For the next 2 weeks I could put NO weight through my knee whatsoever and had to tentively hop everywhere at a snail pace. I knew what I had done because I have seen others do it (and I have done it before playing footbal as a child). After about 3 weeks I could walk again and it slowly cleared up without any physio, opperations or fuss - just good old fashioned positive thinking and rest.

 

Now I know that this is a bit speculative, but I am a firm believer in positive thinking and rest for healing. A bit of positive self belief and mind over matter and you should have the best chances of pulling through an injury. It may not work every time, but it I'm sure it helps.