Chronic Ankle Sprain with weak hip making recovery more difficult {Lacey Wa}
October 19, 2011 | 
Author This young patient had a chronic ankle sprain that WOULD NOT GET BETTER, He wore a brace but still had pain after more than 6 months. To make matters worse, the hip on the right side (where the ankle sprain was) became weak from the pain. You can see his right knee collapses in when he does a right leg mini squat.
Right knee collapses with single knee squat
After we gave him this exercise:
he and stretched the right front/inner hip, he had more control:
And now he runs side to side like this:
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: ankle sprain, physical therapy Olympia, sports injury | 
6 Comments »
Dancing in Olympia….after knee surgery? YES
Phyllis Hanks loves to dance with her partner George Haller. They are dance instructors at the Lac-A-DoHall in Olympia (website is http://olympia-modern-western-dancing.org/OurPeople.aspx). The problem was…she could not dance without knee pain. It got to the point she needed to have knee surgery, and had a meniscus repair to fix her pain.
After her surgery she came to Comstock Physical Therapy for her knee rehab…and got a little better. Progress was slow, even after quite a few PT sessions of strengthening, stretching, and range of motion exercises. I was pretty frustrated; here was this lovely patient frustrated as heck and progress was slow. Then I looked up and down her leg to see if any other problems could be contributing to her knee pain…AND THERE IT WAS! Her left ankle was SO STIFF; we had given her ankle stretching exercises, and she had been doing them religiously, but she was still SO STIFF in her ankle. Here is a picture of her left ankle's stiffness, stepping off a step:
We treated her left ankle and foot by stretching the individual joints. After that treatment she DANCED 6 HOURS OVER THE NEXT WEEKEND. Here is how her ankle's mobility on the left is now:
Her knee feels better now! Turns out her ankle stiffness was making her knee hurt!
If you would like to contact George or Phyllis for dance lessions, please email George at haller.george@comcast.net.
Posted in Ankle Sprain, Exercise Programs, Hip pain, Joint Pain, Knee pain, Lacey, Plantarfasciitis, Tumwater, Uncategorized | Tags: ankle pain, dancing, knee pain, knee surgery, lacey, tumwater | 2 Comments »
Fall Prevention Awareness Day {Olympia Wa}
Joyce Mills MPT of Comstock Physical Therapy will be performing Balance Screenings today at Fall Prevention Awareness Day, 1:00 – 3:30 pm at Westwood Baptist Church on Olympia's Westside. Come check out the event!
Posted in Balance, Community, Exercise Programs, Fall Prevention, Lacey, Olympia, Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation, Tumwater, Yelm | 2 Comments »
Are my flat feet permanent? {Olympia, Wa}
Have you ever wondered if flat feet are permanent? Can your pronated feet be reversed? Well, not all flat feet can be restored to pristine, mountain high arches, BUT if you look at this link below, you can the woman's right arch (left side of picture) has been restored…which is where she had the pain…but her left foot (right side of picture) has remained somewhat flatter, like the right one used to be.
Before treatment she could not walk on travels with her husband without significant pain. She just went on recent trip and was "98%" better after physical therapy at Comstock PT!
Walking a lot on vacation? Got sore feet? What to do…
Does the amount of walking you do exponentially increase when on vacation? Such spots as Las Vegas, Washington DC and New York require a lot of walking and if you have a desk job or don’t walk a lot, your feet will hurt if you don’t prepare.
How to prepare?
#1: Do you have flat feet (do your feet pronate).? If so, you can purchase over the counter arch supports and use them on and off during your trip while walking a lot.
#2: Are you feet week? Practice single leg balancing for 30 seconds 3 times per day on each foot/leg to build up foot strength and improve your balance. Better yet, if you have a gel disc at home or the gym use that–it will challenge you more.
#3 Make sure to alternate different types of shoes during the day to stress different parts of your foot. One day I wore tennis shoes with orthotics in the morning, and wore sketcher flip flops in the afternoon.
#4 Learn how to massage your feet and lower leg muscles to take the kinks out.
Happy walking!
Posted in Ankle Sprain, Bunion, Bursitis, Muscles In Sync, Uncategorized | Tags: foot pain, physical therapy Olympia, vacation, walking | No Comments »