Treating pain and adhesions from radiation therapy
Radiation therapy, frequently prescribed to treat cancer, can cause multiple adhesions (internal scars) in the body. Adhesions can cause moderate to severe pain or dysfunction, with life-long consequences. Radiation therapy adhesions act like a very strong glue, adhering the irradiated tissues to nearby structures, such as organs, muscles, bones, and connective tissues. Where adhesions occur, organs and muscles can lose their ability to function normally, often causing pain or other symptoms. Symptoms sometimes appear far from the site of the original trauma, as inflammation causes adhesions to spread to neighboring organs.
At Clear Passage Therapies®, we know this process from personal and professional experience. Our work, the Wurn Technique®, was developed by physical therapist Belinda Wurn and her therapist husband Larry over 20 years ago, to treat the adhesions that formed in Belinda’s body after she underwent surgery and radiation therapy to her pelvis. The radiation therapy helped cure Belinda’s cancer, but left her with adhesions that caused unexplained pain and organ dysfunction in various parts of her body.
Treatment options
Radiation can cause adhesions throughout the affected areas.We were surprised to learn that medical science did not offer treatment to address post-radiation therapy tightness and pain. Modern medicine offered medication to mask the pain, or surgery if the pain became unbearable. Left with little choice, we developed our therapy to treat Belinda’s pain and dysfunction. As her symptoms began to subside, we refined our work to treat other patients with similar problems.
After 20 years of study and development, we have become experts at treating post-radiation adhesions and pain.Many of our patients have searched for relief for years before they found us. For most post-radiation therapy patients, the search for relief ends with good or total resolution at one of our clinics.
There are few options available to women and men who are suffering needlessly after radiation therapy, and many people do not obtain pain relief or resolution after conservative treatment such as traditional physical therapy or medications. Unless we address the strong, underlying adhesions and scars that pull on pain-sensitive structures, patients generally find that resolution does not occur.
Most physicians agree that surgery is a treatment of last resort. While surgery can address adhesions and other mechanical problems, formation of new adhesions is the natural consequence of most surgeries.
We have treated many patients who have been through several surgeries for adhesions, with those surgeries resulting in post-operative adhesions (an ongoing cycle of surgery and adhesions). We suspect that new adhesion formation is one reason that some people do not obtain lasting pain relief after one or more surgeries. In fact, some people find their pain worsens after surgery.
The primary goal of our manual therapy (Wurn Technique®) is to increase mobility, decrease pain, and restore function. We are highly skilled in using our hands to palpate restricted areas of the body until the tensions release. Our work appears to reduce adhesions, decrease pain, and improve soft tissue mobility. For more detailed information on how treatment works and how it feels, see “treatment philosophy” and “what treatment is like.”
Radiation therapy and adhesions
The pelvis and abdomen are common sites for radiation therapy. Abdomino-pelvic organs must be able to move freely in the body to function properly, without pain. Adhesions may bind abdominal organs to nearby structures, causing pain or digestive problems. In the pelvis, organs of elimination and reproduction may be affected; pelvic adhesions are primary causes of infertility, intestinal obstruction, and chronic pelvic pain. In severe cases, a condition known as a "frozen pelvis" may occur, as organs, muscles, fascia, and ligaments in the pelvic cavity all become encased in adhesions. Pain may spread into the low back or hip, down into the tailbone or legs, and up into the ribs, stomach, diaphragm, or chest. Patients with any of the above conditions generally respond very well to our work.
Clear Passage Therapies® was created as a response to our Director’s post-radiation and post-surgical adhesions. We have studied, refined, and developed conservative manual therapy techniques to reduce adhesions in the abdominopelvic region for over two decades. We treat the soft tissues of the abdomen and pelvis with our hands, using gentle, site specific therapy to decrease adhesions affecting muscles, organs, their connective tissues, and their attachments. This conservative, non-surgical approach has been very effective treating pain and dysfunction due to abdominopelvic adhesions and scarring.
We are experts at freeing the abdominal and pelvic adhesions. As we decrease the restricted tissues, mobility returns and pain generally decreases significantly. Freed of the glue-like adhesions, most patients find their quality of life significantly improved, freed of the glue-like straight-jacket of adhesions pulling on their internal muscles, organs and nerves. As pain begins to resolve, we work to restore alignment, balance and mobility to the entire body, and return our patients to the quality of life they enjoyed before surgery, and before radiation therapy.
