Haddow Massage Therapy

06/12/2026

Your . There is no book, program, or protocol that can make up for that.

There are a minimum of 2 levels of expertise needed for effective care.

1. The professional - this is pretty important. Healthcare for the chronically ill is pretty bare bones, and absolutely full of predators looking to milk us. A good respects their fiduciary duty, and helps their patients navigate the intricacies of their needs.

2. The patient - this is essential. We don't respond very well to operative approaches very well. We need interactive care. As patients, our expertise in our own lived experience dictates the entire direction, flow and dosage of care.

We as patients provide the direction and focus, and our healthcare professionals provide context and formal input.

06/12/2026

Most of us won't find our solution in a book or a guide.

We're likely to find things that might be helpful, and we're incredibly likely to find things that flare us up, but actual EDS care requires input from people who are experts at that care.

Proper requires two types of expert input, AT A MINIUM.

1. Input from a qualified professional. This is really important. There's no shortage of terrible care and myopic approach, so actually having a professional listen to you and work with you is a necessity to wade through the crap.

2. Input from our own lived experience this is MORE important. No amount of knowledge on my part as a professional can make up for a dearth of input from my patient. The details of a patient's experience inform and direct all of that professional expertise.

Simply put, we as patients can see the most knowledgeable practitioners in the world, but if we as patients aren't treated as experts in our own body, that care is going to be subpar at best.

06/11/2026

A simple early (active) rehab exercise for upper groin injuries.

A simple isometric exercise for a pectineus (or really any other up...

06/10/2026

I do this for a living...

And there's not an ice cube's chance in hell I can get it perfect.

And the sad reality is that even getting everything perfect won't result in perfect output, because the substrate -my actual body and nervous system- are compromised. There will be bad days, worse days, terrible days, decent days and even the odd good one, and I may or may not have any agency over that.

And this is the reality for care and self care. Daily life requires a lot more work, a lot more awareness of limits, and a whole bunch more self compassion than most people require.

06/09/2026

make everything better.
..Even 😉

Today, my 20 year old cat Yoshi joined me for some movement. He's always there to keep me company when the pain is high.

takes a lot out of you. Not the work part, that's the easy stuff... The mental and emotional toll as you never really manage to rest and recover is the real kick in the teeth. Pets make that better (assuming you're a person who likes animals - not everyone does) and that includes the rigors of having daily routines to help you manage:

Sleep - we don't generally do that well.
Diet - we often don't digest well. I have for example.
Autonomic dysfunction - getting up and fighting a blackout is... Interesting.
And the obvious parts like the dislocations, surgeries, etc.

Coming home to a fuzzy friend who is genuinely happy you're home just takes the edge off of the emotional drain, and makes the mental load just a little less exhausting.

06/08/2026

Oh yeah, today's a rib day.

Right on time, the rib stuff is migrating. It usually starts with a bruised feeling or ache in the paraspinal region, and as I manage to calm things down that decreases. But the hypermobility isn't exactly gone, in fact it's worse for a while, so the muscles get more sore.

I'm there now.
Today is more general, with a bunch of the specifics remaining, but a bit more dull. The primary pain is decreasing and centralising, but the secondary muscle pain is jumping into the conversation. The yo-yo effect is coming 😉

Next couple of months are going to likely be back and forth between joint and muscle pain while I incrementally recover.

06/06/2026

Day 17,017 - Yoshi knows, but my secret is safe with him.

Chronic illness means your time off is effectively split in half. It works out reasonably well though, because so is your sleep!

There's a certain symmetry there 😋

Today was the and in .

It was a beautiful day, and I was really happy to make it out, especially with how important demonstrations like the curiosity cube are.

I'm someone who both works in healthcare and needs it badly, so I've had front row seats to the gradual gutting of over the last 20 years, and especially more recently under the leadership of . Critical thinking matters, and getting kids involved means fewer adults getting the wool pulled over their eyes later. .. And maybe even a recovery of our public healthcare to something capable of working with patients such as myself.

06/04/2026

They say it's about the journey and not the destination, but I never expected the journey to come with so many stubbed toes.

Still managing the pain, and has entered the chat again for the first time in a long time.

I know this might sound like a lot, but it's honestly within normal limits for . This is part of why we're actually really simple to work with.

Simplicity:
The goal as always, remains unchanged. I want to explore what movements I have access to, challenge them through range, resistance, and rate of movement, and then see what sticks and build up from there. It's effectively just applying the basics of myoskeletal care effectively.

06/03/2026

Day 17,014... They still don't suspect a thing, and yet I walk among them... 😋

The thing about rib pain, and things like subluxations of the ribs, is that the pain often overlaps with ways we would normally manage pain.

Deep breath? That's probably not helping.
Relaxing into a big comfy couch? Not without staying tense, you're not.
Laying in bed? You might pursue comfort, but it will be evasive.

My job today is to map it out, like always, and then try to build on that map while not overdoing it.

I focused on letting the trunk and ribs feel nice today while I worked on feeling strong around them in ways that don't seem to p**s things off, and don't get me too winded because breathing deeply is painful.

06/01/2026

Rib and paraspinal pain is weird.

The trunk exhibits a huge diversity of movement, and includes a bunch of joints that can share the load and accommodate. This means that we tend to be REALLY good at managing around myoskeletal injuries and pathologies of the ribcage, or the spine.

And if you're seeing that and thinking "well, I've cracked ribs and it hurt a lot", then that's valid. But the fact of the matter is that pain is only a small part of dysfunction.

Today I'm working on exploring my mobility and pain, to see what can feel good and competent, and what needs to be respected and allowed to chill.