A lot of my patients ask me, “How do you know where the pain is?”

Picture this: You are standing in front of a large table topped with a cloth. Blindfolded.

You’re asked to hold the two corners of the table cloth and create a wave – just like when you were a kid with the parachute. Even though you can’t see the cloth move, you can feel that it’s making a big wave with ease.

Then imagine a cup of water is placed on top of the cloth. And you’re asked to do the same thing. But when you try to create the wave, you no longer feel the ease. Instead, there is an obstruction. And the air beneath the wave has to flow around the obstruction to get to the other side.
This is exactly how injury works in the human body.

Think of the table cloth as one layer of tissue. It desires to be free flowing. And the cup is like an injury. It impedes the natural flow of the tissue. Our bodies are made of many layers of tissue including bony, arterial, venous, neural, muscular, lymphatics, skin, and more.

When you’re injured, a significant amount of energy dissipates into soft and hard tissue causing unusual densities within its many layers. This “density” holds the layers of tissues down in the same way the cup held down the cloth.

To detect the pain, you have to identify the layers of tissue that are bound together because this is what is obstructing the system. And more likely than not, there is a sensory nerve that is also being held down which is what causes the pain.

I hope that helps you have a greater understanding of how injuries work in your body.

Do you have any questions? Don’t hesitate to hit reply or contact me at samlo@samlo.ca