Organ vs. Muscle Pain

Sometimes as practitioners, we develop tunnel vision and hone in a little too much on what we specialize in. As an RMT, there are times when someone presents with pain and I automatically think, "well, it must be these muscles here." and forget that this person has nerves, joints, organs and so on.

I got thinking about this this past week when my husband landed himself in the hospital with kidney stones! Yikes. I've never witnessed someone in so much pain.

Kidney pain often presents over the low back and there was one point before my husband went into the hospital where he thought perhaps it might be musculoskeletal rather than kidney stones, so I did a little assessment.

Although RMTs cannot diagnose things like kidney stones, I am still able to look at the signs and symptoms and recognize any red flags. 🚩

Here are some things I looked at:

• History (he's had kidney stones before and this pain was very similar)

• Palpation (did pressing on the area increase or decrease pain?)

• Movement (organ pain generally often doesn't increase or decrease with positioning)

• Accompanying symptoms (the pain was so bad he was vomiting. General low back pain usually does not cause this.)

After looking at his symptoms and especially the severity of his pain, he went to the hospital to receive the appropriate care. Yay for morphine! 🙃

KEY TAKE AWAYS: Not all pain is muscle pain - be sure to rule out other causes such as organ pain. Also validate your patients’ pain.

Here's a cool chart with organ referral patterns: https://www.rosenbergchiropracticclinic.ca/post/referred-pain

To hear Jordan and me chat more about this, check out Episode 3 of our Massage Life Podcast:

To learn more about pain and earn CEU credits, check out Eric Purves' course Persistent Pain Management for Massage Therapists.