The Woman with the Noh Mask Face and a Year of Neck and Shoulder Stiffness

Neck and shoulder stiffness.

This seemingly simple problem,
can actually, quite often,
plunge a person's life into total darkness.

I myself am not someone who suffers from severe shoulder stiffness,
so if I hadn't become an acupuncturist,
I probably would never have known the true terror of it.

But now, I know at least three people,
whose lives were perpetually overcast,
due to neck and shoulder stiffness.

Today, I will write about one mother,
who was troubled by such neck and shoulder stiffness.

You might think it's an exaggeration,
to say "their life."

But I am sure,
if I asked them directly,
they would tell me it was more than just "overcast,"
perhaps "a downpour," "a typhoon," or "a heatwave,"
and I feel like I would be scolded for understating it.

The prime example of this,
is the mother I am introducing here,
Ms. T.

Ms. T has very sloping shoulders,
and a neck as long as a swan's.

This body type is not unique to Ms. T;
her mother and older brother have it too,
and they apparently suffer from very intense neck and shoulder stiffness.

Ms. T's neck and shoulder stiffness was,
in a sense, "genetic,"
including her body type and skeletal structure.

My first impression of her was,
that she was a very polite and elegant lady.

……However, she was somewhat distant,
like someone with a wall built around them.

It has been about a year and three months since her first visit.
During that time,
I had never once seen Ms. T smile.

Even when she tried to smile,
she somehow looked sad.

When she spoke, only the area around her mouth moved.
She was patient and not the type to complain,
but even while talking, her expression barely changed.

It looked as if she had been suppressing,
her feelings of sadness and pain for a long time.

It is not uncommon for patients with severe conditions,
to not change or show their expressions.
So I,
tried not to think about it too deeply.

The stiffness in her neck and shoulders was, of course, intense.

Her shoulders, in particular,
were so hard I wondered if she had grown new bones.
No matter how hard I tried,
there was almost no change for nearly a year.

The changes started to appear
about three months ago.

Before coming to me, Ms. T
had apparently been going to acupuncture and various other treatments
for about ten years.

Even so, I could tell just by touching her body
without even having to ask
that there had likely been almost no change.

Around this summer,
she also received hydrorelease at a hospital.

Even then, there was no major change.

With this body type—sloping shoulders and a long neck—
the skeletal burden is inevitably high.

Honestly, even in my mind,
thoughts crossed my mind like,
“Perhaps it’s already impossible,”
“Maybe this stiffness that feels like bone
is actually ‘bone’.”

I wondered what on earth acupuncture could do
when even hospital treatments were difficult.

However,
some time after that,
the effects of the acupuncture started to appear little by little.

At the same time,
changes also appeared in Ms. T herself.

Ms. T, who had been quiet until then,
started asking questions
after her treatments.

She asked about my experiences with nutritional therapy
and about Dr. Tokumi Fujikawa’s books.

Ms. T, who used to leave quickly
once the treatment was over,
began to initiate conversations with me.

And above all—
that face that had been like a Noh mask
began to show expressions.

One day, Ms. T
told me something like this.

“Actually,
when I gargle,
I couldn’t do it unless I held the back of my neck
with my hand.”

It was painful to look up,
and she said she couldn’t gargle
unless she firmly supported the back of her neck.

Because of her straight neck.

Forgive my rudeness,
but I couldn’t help but ask back,

“Wait, is that true…?”

It sounded like a little joke to me.

But that just meant that I
didn't even understand one-tenth
of the pain T-san was feeling,
at all.

Neck and shoulder stiffness.

It is by no means
just a "simple" ailment.

It can be so severe you can't even gargle,
constricting your daily life,
and before you know it,
it can cloud over
a person's entire life.

I hope that through this story,
that comes across, even if just a little.

Now, every time T-san comes in,
she is getting better and better.

Things that had been hardened over a long time
have finally begun to loosen up.
That is the feeling I get.

There must still be many people out there
who, like T-san,
are truly suffering from neck and shoulder stiffness.

If there is someone around you
who has neck and shoulder stiffness,

please don't say "it's just a stiff shoulder," but
please, just a little bit,
be kind to them.

* This episode is being shared
with T-san's permission.

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