Migraines and chronic pain following a car accident

L., La Rosa, U.S.A. (Published in ‘Bowen Hands’ magazine)

I was told I would have to ‘learn to cope’. That’s what my permanent injuries came down to – painful reminders of the auto accident.  Stopped at a red light, I was hit from behind at 60 miles per hour. My jaw dislocated  and snapped back, my right rib fractured at the seat belt line, and I bounced around inside my car like a ping pong ball. I was alive, and now I had to learn to cope with my life-long daily souvenirs: TMJ, migraine headaches, back spasms, myofasciitis.

Along with massive amounts of pain-killing drugs, conventional physical therapy followed: massage, heat packs, ultrasound, cold packs. Three times a week. For 18 months. I learned to work around the back spasms and migraine that kept me in bed for days. I learned to identify, early on, the ache in my ears or jaw signalling a TMJ attack and 3-day migraine. And I restricted my life to accommodate my limitations.. New pains, like the one in my right hip – a sharp, probing, boring pain deep in the socket – would probably appear as the years went on. I would never be the same. Against my will, I had been drafted into the army of chronic pain.

A dear friend of mine could not bear this and asked if I would try Bowen therapy. I had never heard of Bowen or his method. And although my body felt as if it belonged to someone else, my mind was open. Ever curious, I agreed. For the first three weeks, I couldn’t lie on my stomach with my arms down at my side during the session. But then, I hadn’t been able to do that since3 the accident. My sinus cavities clogged up whenever I was on my stomach, but then, I’d done that all my adult life. Then, I believe at week four, it suddenly occurred to me while I was lying on my stomach, on the treatment table, that my arms were down at my sides and there was no pain in the shoulders, no discomfort, and – strangest of all – I was breathing clearly, what others call normally. No terrible inner sensation of a wave filling up my head.

Bowen therapy is so subtle, I had been completely unaware that I was breathing clearly. I started to notice more changes. I had more strength, more energy, and much more flexibility _ whether on a treadmill, walking the dog, or going down the stairs. No back spasms. No low back aches or throbs. I could even bend over and touch my toes.
I hadn’t had a migraine. Even with 87% humidity. My face didn’t ache, my jaw didn’t throb and I didn’t slide into a three day migraine. No earaches either. Because the TMJ was better. In 18 months of conventional physical therapy, no one had ever touched my face. The TMJ was a lost cause, the source of my doctor’s pronouncements to “learn to cope”.

After eight weeks of Bowen therapy, I was coping all right: getting out of bed in the morning without a stiff, aching low back; bending, lifting, moving about. I continued to learn to cope without earaches, without migraines, without daily jaw pain. After Bowen I finally learned to cope: I think it’s called a normal life.