Dear Lucy,
I wanted to thank you for all you’ve done for me and to me. You have truly changed my life. After the disastrous hip replacement (leg lengthened, moved to the side and back and toes turned in) I endured; I spent 18 months trying to learn to walk with a 60 plus year old body that was totally off balance. I fell a lot. I learned to “walk walls” so I had something to fall into when I fell.
I had to inch down and up anything that was inclined and hold onto hand rails when using stairs. Curbs were a nightmare. I had more than one stranger help me up and really frightened my grandchildren by falling. My grandson once ran into me to give me a hug and I fell. He was crushed even though I tried to tell him it wasn’t his fault. In addition, I hurt constantly and lived on Aleve. Regular physical therapy from three different clinics did nothing to help me.
About two years after the surgery, I remember my husband telling me a co-worker had come to you after a messed up knee replacement and that the co-worker was no longer limping or in pain and was raving about how great you were. I was so frustrated and tired and in pain that I didn’t want to try any more therapists. I’ll admit I finally came in just to shut him up. I had no hope left. I’d gone from a practicing black belt to a “crippled old lady” in one day due to the surgery.
You had me do some really different things. Blowing up balloons? What’s with that? Well, in about three weeks it didn’t hurt to breathe any more. I’d been holding myself so stiffly, I wasn’t breathing. Laying on my back and lifting my hips? Using walking sticks like I was climbing a hill as I walked? What was this? Reaching up and out with my arms and stepping up and down with my toes held in, or out, or straight? This was nothing like I’d done before. It wasn’t really hard.
Within a month, I was walking again. I got away from the walls. Within two months, I could walk the almost mile around my block and I have HILLS. I was no longer falling. A miracle.
However, you then really surprised me. I remember vividly walking in one day and you stood there with a co-worker and watched me walk. “She’s hurting,” you said. “She’s hurting,” he said and you were right. Well, of course I was. My leg was longer than before the surgery. It was stretched out to the side over an inch. My toes on one leg only were turned in. Muscles had been stretched to the limit.
“Let’s fix that.” Fix the pain. Really? Over the next month you did fascial release. You put your wonderful hands on me and got rid of all the knots in the muscles. You got rid of the scar tissue binding up the incision site. Did it hurt? Oh yeah. But every time I got up off your massage table, I walked better that I had when I came in the door. I hurt less and less. So I breathed through it and my life changed.
I just wish I’d listened to my husband sooner or found you first after the surgery. I had given up all hope of resuming any kind of normal life. I had given up all hope of a pain free life. You gave me that pain free life and helped me adjust to the changes made by a poor surgeon. I no longer limp. I no longer fall down. I can walk up or down a hill and step up on a curb without being terrified I’ll fall. My muscles don’t cramp and burn. Aleve is for headaches, not for burning, cramping muscles.
I still come to see you. You’ve helped me when I get “out of whack”. You tell me try something and I’ve learned to listen. No matter how “different” your methods are from tradition physical therapy, they work. Thank you for helping when no one else could.
Deborah M.
