Hand Pain: A Case Study

Xela (Quetzaltenango), Guatemala has many Spanish language schools and has a reputation in the country as the place you go if you are serious about learning Spanish.  The cost of study is quite surprising: U$60 for one week of intensive one on one Spanish classes (4 hours/day, 5 days/week, 20 hours total).  A home stay with a local family can be arranged for an extra U$70 (7 nights accommodation, 3 meals per day).

 

I took classes at the Miguel de Cervantes School and was matched with my teacher, Miriam for one on one classes.  After learning that Miriam was having trouble with her hand, I offered my help over the remaining 3 days.  She accepted, and saw some dramatic improvements.

Miriam was 55 years old at the time of this article.  5 years prior, she tripped and fell in the street, landing on her right hand.  During the fall, most of the impact centred on her right carpal bones and the metacarpals heads.  She also tore her left achilles tendon which was treated during 8 months of physiotherapy.  She never received any treatment for her hand.

Before treatments started, she showed the following signs:

 

Upon examination of her hand, I noticed quite a build up of scar tissue around the second, third, and fourth metacarpo-phalangeal joints.  There was very little joint mobility in her carpals and between her metacarpals.

 

I gave her the following treatment over three days:

 

She also did the following home care:

 

After 3 days of daily treatments and home care, she had the following results: