A Physical Therapist Shares His Treatment Experience with His Own Knee Injury

“Sometimes you’re just too close to the problem.”

That statement has been true for me in sport, in my work and business life, and also when it comes to dealing with my own health. All it really means is that when you’re the one going through a problem, you’re so close to the issue that it can sometimes be difficult to see the solution. Not seeing the problem clearly causes a few predictable outcomes: 1)  You do nothing to solve your problem because you are unsure of the right actions to take to solve it. 2) You make mistakes because you try fixing the wrong things.

My knees started giving me a little trouble in my late 30’s. I had recently started a Physical Therapy business, and I fell in the same trap I’ve seen played out on my treatment tables for years. You leave the stability of a job to pursue something better for yourself. You take the risk of not having a stable income to try to crack the code of business and the riches you think it promises. Because there is no ‘safety net’, you put all your time and energy and attention into the business. That’s what I did. I used to counsel people that in our younger days we sacrifice our health in order to make money, and as we age we begin sacrificing our money to restore our health. It was so easy to advise people that were making that mistake because I was an employee. I didn’t have the problem, but all of a sudden I recognized that I too was doing what they did. I ignored the warning signs that were coming with aches and pops and swelling of the knees after playing baseball on Sundays.

It had gotten to the point where I began doing less, moving less, because there was discomfort. Slowly my muscles weakened, and the problems continued to progress. I put a little effort into getting the leg strength back, but I was still pulled by the business. What needed to happen was to try to look outside myself, and get a fresh perspective, coaching and advice from someone else. I was too close to the problem.

My first stop was Viva Life Healing Center where we started with a simple ultrasound. I discovered much of the swelling I was experiencing was from Baker’s Cysts in the knees. Having treated these conditions myself, I knew draining the knee wouldn’t give a long term solution, and surgery was too aggressive of an option at this stage. Fortunately, a more conservative approach was available, and that was sonic therapy and pulsed electromagnetic field therapy. Intense sound waves disrupt the tissue and bring growth factors to old injuries to restart the healing process. That used in combination with PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field) therapy, is meant to increase circulation to the area, to promote a better environment for healing.

Treatment involved using an applicator head in contact with gel that is on the skin to provide a medium for the sound to move through. The device delivered hundreds of ‘shock waves’ that you can feel in the tissue and knee joint. When it was applied to areas where I had more pain, I could feel an ache letting me know we were working on the most affected area. By the end of treatment I could feel less tension in the knee, and it was more comfortable in full bend as well and being completely straight. Treatment takes no time at all, and I was done in about 30 minutes with both the sonic therapy and PEMF.

I was advised that I may have aching in the knee after treatment, but fortunately I felt nothing but good from the moment I left Viva Life’s office. I’m on board with the future treatment protocol of weekly treatment for 6 weeks. The benefits of being in the field of physical therapy and going through this experience, is that I fully understand this treatment is just the jump off point in my knee recovery. Getting the joint back to comfortable will enable me to work on the strengthening activities need to get all the way back to 100%.

As I write this, I am about an hour from my next treatment. I will keep you posted on my progress so that, not only will you get to learn more about the innovative treatments that are available in treating knee issues like mine, it will also keep me accountable to do the work on my end to ensure the outcome I’m looking for.

If you want to see if Viva Life Healing Center has treatment options for you, reach out to them at

What Viva Life does is so innovative, and so impressive we have invited them to our offices August 28th, 2021 from 9 to noon for an IV hydration and Wellness workshop.

Get the details——–>>>>  HERE

 

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