I was asked this week by a patient who had tried everything, “Why are we different and why will she get a different outcome by coming to this office!” It was a great question!
This client had foot surgery, then physical therapy, and she was doing well until she moved the wrong way and started hurting all over again…
She then tried acupuncture, a neuro physical therapist, massage therapy, then wanting to try a functional medicine doctor to check out her blood work (not sure how blood work will help an orthopedic problem- but I get their thought process thinking she may have arthritis) And what did the doctors want to do?? Well, all the Orthopedic surgeons want her on medications for life!! One doctor wanted to do another surgery… Stop the madness!!
These same top ortho doctors (doctors who are the best surgeons out there) told her to just rest and relax in her older age! Just drink some wine and sit around and enjoy life (are you kidding me!!).
This client can not walk without hurting. Tell me, how do you enjoy life without walking!! What can you do if you cannot walk without pain!
In our healthcare we like to treat the symptoms. Let’s start with her physical therapy that she liked. This is what is wrong with our profession? We like to go to the site of the pain… They only worked on the pain on the outside of her foot! She complained about her big toe hurting too. The PT said, he can not work on that? Umm, your foot hurts and you only have a doctor’s prescription to work on 1 muscle?? SAY WHAT? Her foot was hurting! The toe is apart of her foot!
Let’s work on getting her function back (which is walking pain free) and what all does that entail? The foot might not be the only problem in getting her back fully and pain free.. We have to look at the big picture, after all the body is connected..
She tried massage therapy, which she said worked but did not last.. Again. This is just one piece of the puzzle. No one was putting everything together. You can not only look at the muscle tightness. You have to get into why is the muscle getting tight in the first place.
She also did acupuncture which she said helped a little bit although she is still not walking without pain so maybe it is not fully helping her get to the root cause of the problem.
The Neuro PT, I have no answers as to what they were doing, but at least they were looking at the whole picture, but not from an orthopedic way. They wanted her to get a mouth piece, and new glasses and do exercises that had so many instructions that I had a hard time following on how to do correctly and I am a physical therapist.
They also put her in an orthotic that made her put more pressure toward the inside of her foot and I get the idea because they want to take the pain away from the outside of her foot, but you are just treating the symptom and not getting to the root cause of the problem.
Listen, I know there are some many great healthcare professions out there, but when you can go to a place that can put all the pieces together then you are at the right place, and then you will get results you want.. And that is WHAT WE DO!
Why did she not get the results?
- No one put all the pieces together to get to the source of the problem…
- They did not Listen to her (the patient always holds the clues if we listen and ask great questions).
- They also went to the site of the pain. They treated the symptoms and did not put all the pieces of the puzzle together. (I always say where the pain is located is often not where the source of the problem is located).
It is why she felt like she was on a hamster wheel running and not getting anywhere!
She did have a toe issue because she has tightness in her plantar fascia that needs to be addressed. No one looked for the tightness in her lower leg except the massage therapist, but here is the deal.. You have to put massage together with the correct exercise to strengthen the muscles around the foot so the foot can take the load of walking without hurting.
The gradual strengthening with the soft tissue work is part of the key to getting her back to walking and playing golf and riding her bike..
She also complained of hip issues. No one looked at this as well. She walked with her foot turned outward. Her hip mobility on the same side as her foot was not great. She did not have much hip extension and rotation which also affects how she walks.
Overall, we had to work on getting the mobility back first- the mobility of her joints and the mobility of her tissue before getting to the stability and then finally retraining how her body moves so we can get her out of the wrong movement patterns she has created for herself due to having so much pain for so long.
You have to put the whole picture together and connect the dots for the patient! That is what we do.. We see success stories all the time and it is because we can spend the time with you to figure out where the source of your problem is really coming from. That is what we do really well.
If you are frustrated with your care and have tried everything or you do not want to try everything and just want to get him know or find a solution to your problem.. CLICK HERE to TALK with one of our SPECIALIST for FREE to help you make a BETTER DECISION about your problem.
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