39-YEAR-OLD RACHEL WAS AN ENTREPRENEUR WITH TWO CHILDREN AND A VERY BAD PROBLEM – PAIN IN HER LEFT KNEE.
She had been hit by a car 5 years earlier while trying to be a good Samaritan in the snow, and while the MRI scans – and even an arthoscopy – weren’t showing any structural problems, her knee hurt so much that she couldn’t walk. She had been referred to an excellent knee surgeon but with a clear MRI, surgery wasn’t the answer, so he recommended physiotherapy with me. She limped into my clinic looking and feeling crushed.
Rachel had been seeing an osteopath since the car accident, and told me that she was definitely better than she had been, but she had plateaued and the therapist was stuck.
When I assessed her, I found that there was wasting of the muscles of her left leg, especially around her buttock and thigh. Her pelvis was moving poorly, and her left hip was painful when we guided it into rotation. There was also a restriction in her left knee, which was painful when she bent it too far, and she wasn’t able to balance on her left foot.
However, when I controlled the movement of Rachel’s pelvis and left hip with my hands, her balance and knee pain significantly improved. This was where we started treatment.
Rachel is not a Londoner, so visits were less frequent, which made her progress a bit slower than usual. Nevertheless, she was totally dedicated to doing her hip exercises, so we were able to see significant changes at every treatment session, as her balance, flexibility and pain levels all slowly improved.
After 12 sessions of physiotherapy, Rachel, who had been on crutches, and had been told that her knee would never improve, was able to run 1.5 miles without pain. She now has normal balance on her left foot, and is now able to play with her children again.