EFT Tapping for Broken Foot: No Pain Meds Needed
By Michelle Mattingly
I thought I’d share my tapping story, even though I find it equally astounding, unbelievable, and somehow completely sensible.
I started using tapping less than a year ago to help with anxiety and depression. I have worked for the last few months with a licensed therapist who uses tapping in her sessions. The results have been amazing and life changing. I feel like my whole self for the first time in, well, in ever. But that’s not even the story I want to tell today…
Today, I am four days post-op from having the fifth metatarsal in my left foot pinned and plated back together. I am in a cast, and non-weight bearing per doctors orders for at least 4 weeks. Now here is the amazing part–I have been completely pain-med free during this time thanks to tapping!
I broke my foot on Saturday, December 12, when I slipped on a snow-covered rock while walking my dogs. Thankfully, I was only a block away from home, and managed to hobble home on the heel of my foot, albeit with excruciating pain. I got home, iced and elevated my foot, and immediately started tapping, as I had recently read Dawson Churches’ article about EFT for First Aid. I used a script something like “Even though the pain in my foot is so bad, I deeply and completely love and accept myself” and “Even though I feel like a total idiot for stepping on that rock, right after Caleb (my brother-in-law) told me not to step there, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.” I tapped through the points with various reminder phrases for about 15 minutes until the pain reduced from a 10+ to about a 3 1/2.
About 2 hours later, I put on a walking boot I had from an old ankle injury, hobbled to the car, and took myself to the emergency room for X rays. I was able to walk on the heel of my foot with the help of the boot (this was the only type of “shoe” I could get my foot into at this point!), drive to the ER, park, and walk into the waiting area. The X rays showed what I had already guessed: broken 5th metatarsal left foot. ER docs’ recommendation: Go home and try to get in to see a podiatrist. They sent me home with six hydrocodone tablets and a prescription for 15 more that I could get filled on Monday.
I took one hydrocodone at bedtime, and one in the middle of the night sometime. The next day I was groggy, constipated, itchy, and still in pain. I decided to return to tapping. I tapped throughout the day, and was able to manage the pain at about a level 3. That night I again took one hydrocodone at bedtime. This night, I woke up with severe itching, in spite of having taken two Benadryl with the hydrocodone. I tapped for the itching, and the pain that was still in my foot, for about 30 minutes until I fell back to sleep. That was the last pain pill I took. From that point on, I managed the pain entirely with tapping. No pain meds whatsoever (not even Advil or Tylenol). I continued to walk on the heel of my foot as needed (for purposes such as getting to the restroom or to and from bed and the couch).
I saw the podiatrist on Tuesday and surgical repair was scheduled for Friday morning. Again, I spent the interim tapping as needed rather than using any pain meds. The bone was repaired Friday morning with 2 or 3 plates and 8 pins under a heavy IV sedative and a local anesthetic. The IV did include some pain medication. The surgeon sent me home with a script for 42 doses of Tramadol for pain, 7 days worth at one pill every 4 hours. My husband and I were instructed repeatedly by the nurses, the surgeon, and the pharmacist to take the pain pills no matter what, to not wait for the pain meds in the IV to wear off, but rather to just take the Tramadol upon returning home, and to continue taking one pill every 4 hours, lest the pain catch up with me and become unbearable.
I took a total of zero pain pills. The pain was bad, there’s no doubt. At its worst, I rated it an 8 of 10. Within 10 to 15 minutes of tapping, I was able, repeatedly, to bring the pain down to anywhere between a 1 and a 4. Sometimes I changed the tapping dialogue to address different aspects of the pain–aspects such as feeling guilty about breaking my foot, about ruining Christmas, about putting so much added stress on my husband. Sometimes I just tapped on the physical pain. Sometimes I tapped on the frustration of the whole situation, and being so disappointed to be in a cast again (this is my fourth foot/ankle-cast-requiring situation in my life; this aspect is, for sure, subject matter for my next visit with my EFT therapist!).
To sum up, my recovery has been quite amazing. Although I am still non-weight-bearing and using crutches, the pain at this point is negligible. I wouldn’t even call it pain, more a slight discomfort or tightness, which I tap on a couple times throughout the day. Much of the time my pain level is at a total 0. Sometimes I get a painful twitch, but the pain subsides in under a minute. I sleep well at night. I am not depressed or stuck in self-pity. I have a better general outlook than I often do in everyday life because I feel so empowered! I am coherent and functioning mentally during the day. I have been able to work from my home office, taking and making phone calls, scheduling appointments, and handling paperwork and bookkeeping duties. As I’m not on any pain meds, I can drive. Or operate large machinery if I so choose–LOL.
I’m just saying that my life is far less compromised than it would have been had pain meds been my only option of coping. Instead I used tapping not only to manage my pain, but to keep my body and mind out of stress mode and in healing mode. I am looking forward to seeing the doctor on January 4 to see how far ahead of schedule my bone healing is…I may just dance my way out of there!
Cheers to the power of tapping! And thanks to EFT Universe for being such an amazing resource!
