I’m not a fan of cortical steroid injections. Repeated research has shown that while the initial pain relief can be significant, prolonged and repeated use starts to break down the tendons within the joint, like a fraying rope. Which inevitably leads to more pain and more problems. Tennis Elbow is a complicated condition, often misdiagnosed and therefore mistreated, it isn’t uncommon to hear of patients having had treatment for many…
I do quite a few radio interviews myself here on the coast, so I was fascinated to hear a fellow physiotherapist give a radio interview. David Peirce from Pondera Physiotherapy talked on Brisbane radio about neck pain and makes some interesting points. You can listen to his interview and I’ve highlighted some of the key points he makes below. [soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/220466998″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /] The first point he…
I don’t think it will surprise anyone who’s met me or read my blog that in my opinion surgery is to be considered the last resort, the thing you do when you’ve tried everything else or things have got so bad there just isn’t another option. But if you are at that point then I think it’s important to get the BEST results possible. These points apply for all kind…
“I have a vision . . . . a vision of your future . . . . . it’s a pain free future . . . . . ” Yes, yes, I know, it’s an old joke that I can predict your future with gait analysis. The studies show that it can predict your outcome after hip replacement surgery and now it turns out that it can predict your injury…
In my first post about chronic pain I explained the difference between chronic pain and acute pain and how pain functions in the body. In my second post I talked about central sensitization and how this complicates treatment for patients with chronic pain – making them, quite literally, feel more pain, more easily with less stimulation. So now I want to put this in a real life context. Knee Surgery…
Neck pain, so much more than a pain in the neck! When I spoke about whiplash I mentioned some of the other conditions and symptoms which whiplash victims can also suffer from. And the reason why whiplash victims often end up with a whole laundry list of symptoms apparently unconnected to their neck? Every single nerve in the body travels through the neck. And every single action in the body,…
A few years ago I was involved in a car accident – another driver didn’t see the red light and rear ended me. I became part of a growing statistic – a whiplash victim. Immediate and Short Term Symptoms stiffness and tenderness in the neck and upper back headaches dizziness pain into shoulders and arms difficulty turning your head Early Treatment The quicker you start treatment, the better. Use an…
The hip or acetabilofemoral joint includes over 70 different ligaments, tendons, muscles and bones and is (with the shoulder) the most flexible joint in the body, slightly different in men and women. Where’s the pain? Confusingly, the area that most of us refer to as our hip is actually the pelvis bone. The hip joint itself is deep into the groin. So “true” hip joint pain is usually felt as…
The Griffith University in Australia recently did some research looking at patient satisfaction during musculoskeletal treatment. One of the key factors in making patients feel the most satisfied and the least depressed was having an X-ray. Of course there are now a multitude of investigations available, and while an X-ray might make you feel better it might not give your clinician the information they need. These are some of the…
As a kid one of my favourite games was Charades. Is it a movie. . . Sounds like . . . . Now as a physiotherapist, when doing an initial assessment I play a different kind of game with my patients – Feels like . . . . And I watch the movements of my patients as closely as I listen to the words. Pain is a funny thing –…