Information for patients

 The body has the intrinsic capacity to heal itself.  If you cut your skin, there will be slight swelling and redness around it, and it will hurt.  Within time, it will heal with a scab, a scar and eventually be nearly invisible.  If we keep on cutting ourselves at the same place, healing will not take place.  The skin will slowly degenerate and become weak.  After a while, even a small injury will hurt disproportionately to the severity.  The same process counts for injuries to tendons, muscles, ligaments, joints and bone.

 If we keep on injuring a joint or muscle, over time, the structures will become weaker and more easily damaged.  The strength of the structure depends on whether we allow it to heal.  It basically depends on what we do to our body.

 It is normal for humans to walk and run.  Each person has an individual style of walking and running, that is normal – we have a “preferred skeletal pathway”.  As the heel (or forefoot) hits the ground, the foot has to absorb the impact forces of running.  The body should be able absorb these forces without needing help from outside.  The impact of walking and running results in minute vibrations that are sent via the leg, the pelvis and the spine up the whole body – right to the head.  There is thus a connection between our feet, the pelvis, spine, arms and head. The vibrations are necessary to act as a signal for the muscles.  The muscles contract to absorb excessive vibration and to stabilise the body, functioning as natural shock-absorbers or guy-ropes. The muscles therefore protect our body.  This protection has to occur before energy is available for the actions of walking, working or running.   If we interfere with our body’s normal reaction to impact, for example by wearing shoes that are worn out or too soft, the body may not get the correct signal.  The muscles will not be protective.  Over time, the body will get damaged.

 Stressful situations or major incidents in our life, such as a fall, motor accident, giving a difficult birth, or other injury, can change the way our body reacts to normal forces of daily life, work and sports.  We can also misuse our body, leading to decreased ability to absorb the forces and to heal when injury occurs.  Over time, overuse injuries develop.  Thus a small injury (such as an ankle sprain) may never recover normally, or it may increase previous pain in other areas of the body, such as the pelvis or spine.  We therefore need to assess the effect of an injury on the function of the whole body, as opposed to just the local joint (such as the ankle).

Physiotherapy

 We can treat swelling, pain, inflammation and muscle weakness with medication and physiotherapy.  But if we do not sort out what could be causing or contributing towards the problem, the body may not heal optimally.  Alternatively, other areas of the body may develop pain.

 At Sole Physiotherapy, contributing factors towards your injury will be analysed.  This may include asking questions pertaining to your family history, previous injuries, work situation and sports training.  You have the right to choose not to inform the physiotherapist of these.  However, this would make it more difficult to analyse your injury.

Your shoes will be assessed, as these can be important factors adding towards injuries.  The approach here will not attempt to change your natural biomechanics.  The assessment will determine, whether the shoes make you more efficient.

 Inserts may be used to place your foot as closely as possible to your natural position during walking and running in that shoe. If the inserts prove to be uncomfortable at any time, the physiotherapist would need to be informed.

 If you have a long-standing problem, more than one appointment may be needed to analyse contributing factors to your injury. 

 Once these factors have been dealt with, manual therapy may be used to treat remaining pain or stiffness.  Rehabilitation exercises may need to be performed to strengthen your body, as relevant to your specific work or sports.

 You will be taught to monitor yourselves – your symptoms, the shoes you wear, your posture during work and sport, your general activity and training programmes, as applicable. 

 Constant re-assessment of your condition and your goals is imperative for good outcomes of treatment.  If your symptoms do not improve, should they get worse and if your goals are not achieved, the physiotherapist would need to be notified to modify treatment appropriately.

 If you would like more information of the approach used at Sole Physiotherapy, or have any concerns, please discuss these with Chris Sole. 

 Articles from published research to support his approach are available.

Appointments

The first appointment is one hour.   Thereafter, appointments are 45 minutes for adults and 30 minutes for children.  ACC only covers injuries caused by specific recent events and pays for treatments of 20-30 minutes.  A surcharge therefore needs to be paid.  Please note, that if ACC turns down your claim, you would be responsible for payments. 

 For surcharges and charges for private claims, please phone Chris Sole at 03-4676527 or contact him via e-mail at csole@hyper.net.nz