Physio, Osteo or Witch Doctor?

[Mossdog]

I've been coping with a sudden, sharp, makes-me-yelp, lower back pain for about 3 weeks now that's not going away. It's like someone has silently sneaked up behind me, and shoved a stiletto blade into my right side! It's not the old, usual, familiar backache I've had for years, which comes and goes, and is managed fairly well by yoga stretches, etc.. No, this is something nastier, I think.

Anyway, my partner is now totally fed-up with my piercing exclamations and associated blasphemous utterances, which can erupt once or twice a day, whenever the silent ninja decides to give me a stabbing. Reluctantly, I've conceded that it's time to get some professional opinion on the issue. But from which professional group? It'll be private as our GP is snowed under.

[mr brightside]

I'd start with a chiropractor, personally.

[Mossdog]

I'd start with a chiropractor, personally.

Thanks - I'll explore that possibility too.

[mr brightside]

Get an MRI if you can, and get a printout of the slice of your whole spine down the middle so people can see the curvature and bone positions. A front/back slice in other words.

[PeteS]

Hijacking this thread but my physio came out with the revelation today that I should heel strike when running uphill. I don't think she really knows what we fell runners mean by 'uphill'. Perhaps we have a tendency to understate but surely we get 10% plus gradient cannot be run on anything but your toes!
Should I get a new physio?

[Graham Breeze]

Hijacking this thread but my physio came out with the revelation today that I should heel strike when running uphill. I don't think she really knows what we fell runners mean by 'uphill'. Perhaps we have a tendency to understate but surely we get 10% plus gradient cannot be run on anything but your toes!
Should I get a new physio?

Not until you have shot a sideways-on video of you doing reverse hand springs.

If you perform them well you would be running on the spot.

Unless you turn round - then you could ascend the hill whilst running backwards.

Whatever - it will certainly be a sight to see and keep

[PeteS]

Not until you have shot a sideways-on video of you doing reverse hand springs.

If you perform them well you would be running on the spot.

Unless you turn round - then you could ascend the hill whilst running backwards.

Whatever - it will certainly be a sight to see and keep

Unfortunately, I will have to pass on that solely because none of us can work out how to post an image bigger than a postage stamp on here, let alone a video!

[mr brightside]

Hijacking this thread but my physio came out with the revelation today that I should heel strike when running uphill. I don't think she really knows what we fell runners mean by 'uphill'. Perhaps we have a tendency to understate but surely we get 10% plus gradient cannot be run on anything but your toes!
Should I get a new physio?

If its an NHS, i wouldn't have bothered in the first place. For what reason anyway?

[Graham Breeze]

[QUOTE=mr brightside;686851]If its an NHS, i wouldn't have bothered in the first place. /QUOTE]

I've known a few physios in forty years of running. Two or three have been brilliant - especially if recommended by my knee surgeon. Others less so.

I once saw a young woman for the first time and she directed me to sit at the end of her desk facing her. She then carried on faffing about with something or other ignoring me for quite some time. When she eventually looked up I smiled and said "Happy Birthday".

She nearly leapt out of her chair and gasped "How did you know that?"

I pointed to my elbow next to her huge desk diary and for that day she had written in large letters: BIRTHDAY.

I thought it a bit odd that she would need to remind herself of that fact but we moved on to my running problem.

Eventually she suggested that my niggle was because one leg was shorter than the other.

This may be so, but by then I had run/raced tens of thousands of miles and no other medical practitioner had ever drawn this physical disability to my attention. But I listened, smiled and nodded, and paid my bill.

Anyway the problem resolved itself and I concluded that physios are not all the same.

[Marco]

Should I get a new physio?

Yes, they may be a good physio but they clearly don't understand running so are not giving you good advice