Physiotherapists are magical (inspired by the invisible disabilities discussion).

I'm in my 40s and have dealt with chronic pain for essentially my whole adult life. A sports related knee injury when I was a teenager that left me with recurring pain, an unstable knee, and an inability to do any kind of percussive sport. It's been really limiting at times, but I have just adjusted and quietly got on with things.

Every now and again something goes wrong. 18 months ago something "clicked" in the knee while I was walking around and work and it totally locked up. I was completely unable to weight bear, and in a huge amount of pain. I tried to carry on as normal but buckled when someone at work asked me how I was getting on - all the pain came to the fore and started crying in to my lunch. My boss sent me home and I had 3 full weeks off my feet, then a slow recovery back to mobility. I felt like I was on a path to decrepitude, frailty, and an early knee replacement.

Eventually things got back to "normal" and I got back in my groove.

___

Skip forward to this summer. My 7yo son is now hooked on skateboarding. I'm spending hours each week sitting beside skateparks simultaneously bored and frustrated that I can't join in. So a picked up a board and all the pads for myself and immediately discovered that my knee stability is simply not good enough. Some folks suggested I see a physio and I took time to shop around based on recommendations, having had disappointing experiences in the past.

Upshot of all this

1) He did a thorough assessment of all my various aches and pains and weaknesses.
2) He showed me specific strength issues - like I was completely unable to stand from a chair without either using my hands, or rocking to build momentum.
3) He convinced me that I had misunderstood the root  cause of my pain. I felt it was muscle tightness, combined with structural issues in the knee. He showed me it was muscle weakness.
4) He gave me some super simple exercises to build strength in some specific places (ie stand-to-sit/sit-to-stand from a chair).

I'm now 10 weeks in and the transformation is remarkable. My knee is stable and strong. The internal swelling after exercise has essentially gone. I'm having a blast skateboarding every weekend, and building both strength and technique. I never skated as a kid, so it's quite a learning curve. I'm still bad, but having a blast. This week he said I'm well on the way to being signed off and not needing to see him.

Why the post?
My pain and limitations had crept up on me. At no point had I consciously crossed a point where I considered myself "disabled" but I was always considering the state of my knee when planning stuff.  I had doubted that physio would be able to fix me, but I had hoped for some improvement. The end result has exceeded my expectations.

The key was something he said at the very first session. "90% of the patients I see don't do the exercises. They are the ones that don't improve. If you do them, you WILL see improvements." I took him at his word and did them seriously for the first two weeks. And he was right. I've eased off a bit since then - the skating has filled that gap reasonably well.

Anyway - if you are limited by physical pain, do consider seeing a physiotherapist, but shop around for one who has good recommendations. Oh, and skateboarding is super fun. Even as an unfit, overweight, slightly broken, 43 year old.

50% of all ______________(fill in the blank) graduated from the bottom half of their class.   Our challenge is to find the ones who graduated from the upper half.  

In one of our doctor hunting episodes for my wife’s back injury and pain, we landed at Swedish American Hospital in Rockford Illinois.   The doctor pulled out a grease pen and said to me “ I know she has had nerve blocks before, but let me show you something. She had a surgery for this…and the scar tissue would have pushed the nerves here. Then she had another surgery, and that scar tissue would have pushed the nerves over there. Finally, she had a surgery that would have pushed the nerves down to here.  Now, I bet everyone have given the nerve block to where the nerves are supposed to be as opposed to where they are.”   He gave the nerve block, and the pain dropped by 90%.

I have bad knees also.  I had almost cured mine using T-touch massage,

Then our daughter gave me one of those machine they advertise on TV that is like sitting in a chair.  Wrecked my knees again.

So what kind of exercises did he recommend?  Please share.

The exercise that made the most difference the fastest was incredibly simple. Sit in a chair. Shuffle your bum right to the edge. Put your strong leg forward by about half a foot length. Stand up from that position in a slow controlled manner. Then sit down in a slow controlled manner. Do sets of 20, 3 times per day.  

Putting your strong foot forward means most of your weight goes on the weak leg.

BUT this worked for me because he had carefully assessed me and identified specifically muscle groups with asymmetric weakness. Someone else would likely need something different.

Once I had built some strength and stability he added some other exercises in like lunges. And some specific stretches as well. Nothing complex or fancy. Just well targeted to address the specific weakness, and in sufficient quantity to build strength.

Day 1 I literally couldn’t do a single sit-to-stand. We had to stack some books on the chair to raise my bum, and I could only do a small number, and wobbled a lot.

Now I can do deep squats with good form and no wobbling, without needing a chair at all.

Amen. I've had to do a lot of PT for my hands, knees, ankles and everything in between (competitive soccer, years of falling off horses, and now arthritis everywhere) and I love it-- and am always encouraging people to go try it. Even just go once, and then do the exercises at home. And yes, if you don't do the exercises you may as well not even go! (and if all they want to do is hook you up to a shock machine, go elsewhere....)

Tereza Okava wrote: And yes, if you don't do the exercises you may as well not even go! (and if all they want to do is hook you up to a shock machine, go elsewhere....)

This is pretty much describing the various bad experiences I had before this. And why I had pretty much given up on it.

I'm glad I gave it another go.

John F Dean wrote:50% of all ______________(fill in the blank) graduated from the bottom half of their class.   Our challenge is to find the ones who graduated from the upper half.  

This - I happen to have a chiropractor that I try not to have to see very often, but when I do, he fixes things. The chiropractor I saw before him, was almost useless.

Unfortunately, someone bought out the physio practice where my favorite physio worked. The new therapist was worse than useless.

Another good option for chronic problems is a focused well trained registered massage therapist - not the "make you feel good" therapists, but the ones that actually hurt while they're fixing you.

Last but not least, diet can be a factor. I ate well, but determined that I was low in Vit. D (I think too many of the animals we eat don't spend enough time in the sun!) Supplementing Vit D was key to getting things healed and to stay healed.