injury and illness

Inside ill versus outside injury

Today I am reminded of the difference between injury and illness. I know this sounds like it would be obvious but it’s not always.

The first symptoms of injury

About a week ago my shoulder started to hurt. At first it just felt stiff and my neck hurt when my shoulder hurt. As the week progressed the shoulder got stiffer and more painful until I could not lift my arm or put it down to work on a client. I tried stretching, massage from three separate people, as well as myself, the chiropractor, who is excellent and worked very hard to make it better. On each of these it would feel better for a few moments and then go right back to being painful. It woke me with shooting and gripping pain 10-12 times per night. At one point I thought I might faint when I turned my head. The pain shot down my arm and up my neck. The room actually spun!

The realization it might be more

After the chiropractor visit it was obvious that this was not an external issue but an internal issue. My body was out of balance, I had an illness. So a homeopathic remedy was the next move for me. Within an hour of taking the remedy my shoulder felt better but still hurt to lift. By the next morning it was basically pain-free and I felt much better all over. Still a little tired. I hadn’t recognized the tiredness as part of the illness. I thought I was just working too hard. Typical for most of us these days.

Evaluating the difference between illness and injury

As I’ve told my clients over and over: if you do all the right things and the injury does not respond correctly then it’s not an injury. It’s internal not external. Frequently viruses create body pain but we don’t recognize it because Western medicine doesn’t recognize it. Homeopathy, Acupuncture or Ayurvedic medicine are all good choices.

Many, many people become ill at the change of seasons. If you’re having symptoms which don’t abate in two to three days, check in with your local practitioner before you become truly ill.