Dammit! I'm a trainer not a doctor!

I Love My Job!

I can honestly say that I would be at work the next morning after having hit the lottery.  No fooling around.  I help people.  Our BodyBasics ( http://bodybasics.biz/ ) logo has a tag line "Move Better, Feel Better, Live Better.  It sounds tidy but it's really huge when I think about it.  

One of my favorite clients came to me 4-6 months ago and gave me the scare of my career.  I thought I'd quite possibly broken her after our first session only I couldn't imagine how. We did some very minimal stuff.  I was just laying the groundwork to getting her moving.  She'd been suffering from daily headaches and had shoulders and a neck that would have stifled a jackhammer.  We were basically working on proper posture, honestly, nothing that I would have suspected that could have even made her the slightest bit sore.  However,when she returned she'd said she'd been in agony and I couldn't even brush by her skin without it hurting her.  I'm not really sure why she had such  a dramatic reaction and it's never happened again but by the end of  even that session she walked out feeling better.  

She has continued to grow stronger and less stiff.  The headaches are gone and she no longer needs to see a neuromuscular therapist once or twice a week.  She's put in the hard work but I helped get her there. She's doing things now that she never would have attempted and that's what brought her in today completely wracked with pain.  It was her shoulder again and she gotten that way by climbing on a ladder and hefting big plastic containers onto a high shelf.  Score!  I say that because she felt strong enough to even attempt such a job.  Even more impressive when you know that she's 4 foot 11.  She has a husband who is over 6 feet tall but she was sure she could do this herself.  Stuff happens and her ergonomics were all off but I'm still counting this as a win.  

The job satisfaction comes in where she comes to ME and says,"you're the best "fixer" I know you'll get me out of this."  I panicked.  I felt like yelling, "Dammit! M! I'm a trainer not a doctor!"  No pressure.  When I gathered my wits, I fell back on basic anatomy, ferreted out the problem, used a few tricks in my toolbox that I've acquired over the years and actually did fix her.  All  the while, an intern and the new hire were looking on adding to my by now, massive ego.  I'm going to bask in the ego trip a while and savor the feeling of actually helping somebody.  I know that it will be short lived and I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.