Hello everyone! Just a quick recap of this weeks posts and videos.
The topics this week included:
- A conversation with a patient on pain and suffering, and how he was using it to create a new purpose.
- How to prepare for your orthopedic physicians appointment.
- Prevent Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome. Make sure you discuss the length of time you are in a cast with your surgeon. If in a boot or splint, make sure you are mobilizing!
- Struggling to complete your home exercise program or workouts for the day? Think about purpose first. Relating Tony Robbins OPA (outcome, purpose, action) system to rehabilitation.
- Discussion on using new affordable technology to your advantage. Investigate the affect of lifestyle choices on mood and pain (sleep, activity, foods, etc.). New technology coming down the line may go one step further by tracking voice and facial recognition in your social media.
PLUS!
- TPI (GOLF) Tuesday post on ways to prevent “scooping” in your golf swing. We show you what regions of the body to look at.
- Strategies for improving motion at the ankle and that first toe.
- More effective way to stretch the calf.
- Techniques for cleaning up pain in the achilles region with Posterior Ankle Impingement (pain in the achilles region with pointing your toe).
Taking a look at pain and suffering.
Realizing you aren’t alone can make your recovery more meaningful than you originally thought.
In an effort to make your car ride home a little more enjoyable I am going to discuss a moment in clinic that stood out. Each day is an opportunity to learn something new. Hopefully something I took away from my day will help you with yours! (Don’t mind the fact that I’m in the car..
As you prepare for your upcoming Orthopedic Physician’s appointment consider the following:
1. Find out if they do medical imaging on site. If not, consider scheduling a follow up session in case you need to return. I am not advocating for regular use of medical imaging. In the case that you do require an X-ray. Not having X-Ray on site can prolong your appointments.
2. Come prepared with ALL the questions you want to ask. These appointments move fast… seize the moment.
3. Make sure you get a proper evaluation. The MD should place her/his hands on you during the evaluation. You paid good money for this.
These appointments are getting quicker and quicker. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn more about how to improve your current situation!
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) isn’t a well known term but may be more common than we think.
CRPS commonly occurs after being immobilized for an extended period of time. This SHOULD be taken into consideration before being casted or splinted.
Some of the symptoms of CRPS symptoms include:
- Pain that is out of proportion to the injury
- Burning sensation at the injured limb
- Color changes at the injured limb
- Temperature changes of the injured limb
- Sweating of the injured limb
- Swelling of the injured limb
If possible, it is important to regularly mobilize the injured region. If it isn’t possible, you should discuss the length of time that you will be casted with your surgeon to ensure the best outcomes.
Tip for getting your WORKOUT or HOME EXERCISE PLAN completed consistently.
Purpose
Outcome
Action
Focus on your PURPOSE first. Why do you want to run that marathon or be able to walk with your spouse without pain?
According to Tony Robbins, the reason we do anything comes down to meeting some of our 6 basic needs.
1. Certainty
2. Uncertainty
3. Significance
4. Love
5. Growth
6. Contribution
Determine what you are really after with the goals you set. See the big picture each day. This will help make that exercise plan a priority.
Use technology to your advantage.
New research and technology are working on taking self tracking to the next level. A company called QNTFY has formulated algorithms that can predict your mood, and maybe even prevent suicide risk in some by monitoring social media usage. It looks at word recognition, variability in posting, facial recognition and changes in tone of your voice. It will be interesting to see this take off over the next 5 years!
For now, use what you have! Affordable technology has given us the power to monitor so many important aspects of our life. Sleep, food intake, and HR to name a few.
Knowing how changes in sleep, activity levels, foods consumed, etc. impact the way we feel is super helpful. It EMPOWERS you to correlate how you feel & pain levels with your daily activities.
Future research like the one I mentioned has been able to identify those who are at increased risk of suicide, so big helper for behavioral health field.
This technology is starting to be implemented with military exposed to blasts or suffering from PTSD. They can use information from their phone to determine level of exposure to blasts, changes in mood, and cognition. Since most of the military members have their phones on them while deployed.
My main point is that a lot of things are hard to quantify on a subjective basis.
Today we are talking about “scooping,” better known as early release.
A poor understanding of a proper impact position is often to blame. Often the cause of medial elbow pain.
Leading the downswing with the upper body can also be a source of your problem. If the hips aren’t leading the swing you have to release the club early.
1. Make sure you have full hip motion (at least 45 deg. In each direction).
2. Work on actively dissociating the hips from the trunk.
3. LOSS of wrist motion [flexion at the lead wrist, extension at the trail wrist can lead to a scoop position at impact.
Check yourself! With a face on video the butt end of the club should reach the hips first. If the club head wins the race you are in SCOOP city! Ouch….
This may require a little time off from the activity that is causing pain, BUT you can reduce your pain by improving motion at:
1. The muscles on the front of the shin
2. The ankle joint
It was a GREAT week. I hope people benefited from the videos and posts! Please comment with any questions and feel free to share if you think someone could benefit.
Dr. Michael Infantino, DPT