This mystery back pain has been driving me mental. It’s lucky, then, that Maria – the new girlfriend of the son of a friend of my aunt – is a physiotherapist who comes highly recommended. At least, she comes recommended by my aunt. She’s somehow convinced that I’m going to get some kind of mates rate for her services on account of our 5 degrees of separation or whatever.
Somehow, I don’t think it works that way. If I was a physio, I surely wouldn’t be giving a discount to my mother’s friend’s nephew just for the sake of it. Besides, I have my own manual therapy regime going on. My aunt won’t let up about Maria, though. The two have never even met, yet my aunt is in the know to a frankly creepy degree. For example, she is able and willing to reel off the details of Maria’s professional development plan.
According to my aunt, Maria is off to complete a trigger point dry needling course. Sydney is a great place to spend a few days and I’m sure she’ll have a great time learning all about dry needling at the course. I don’t have the foggiest idea as to what dry needling entails, but I guess it’s a technique used by physiotherapists. I’m picturing something along the lines of acupuncture, sans subtle energy meridians and plus myofascial release.
I don’t know – it could be of interest to me. My current physio doesn’t do dry needling, although he does deal with trigger points. It must be something that people in that field can elect to specialise in through continuing education. I wonder what kind of content is covered in these trigger point dry needling courses? Can you really learn to alleviate pain by sticking needles in people over one weekend?
Well, I suppose you probably can if you’re already a qualified physio. It’s not like the people who attend these things are randoms who lack a working knowledge of the body. They understand orthopedic and musculoskeletal disorders better than the average Joe. At least, I hope they do… otherwise, why would I be palming off so much of my money to one?