Realignment!

My Journey Of finding the Root Cause.

 

Last November my left knee started hurting.  Not bad. I could ignore the pain. My mom was a nurse and growing up it was drilled into my head – wait and see.   But then it started waking me up at night.  It hurt when I rolled over.  It started to hurt during the day even when I was doing nothing.  I couldn’t ignore it any more.  I had stopped working lower body and cut most of my cardio workouts – and yes I did have to buy new pants (a size bigger) as a result.

 

I messaged a friend who does body work and she sent me a referral.  Dr. Bruce.

 

Dr. Bruce is one of the body savant people.  You know the ones that can watch you walk, squat, wiggle a body part  and immediately see where the problem is.

 

I was first impressed with Dr. Bruce when he was wiggling around my left ankle, looked up at me and said – have you had abdominal surgery?  I thought to myself – it’s my KNEE, not my ankle that’s bothering me and what on earth – why YES I have had abdominal surgery 9 years ago (herniated belly button).

 

Dr. Bruce took a look and puts his hand into my soft tissue near my belly button and said “does this hurt?” I nearly lost my mind – it was so painful.   What the heck?   Ah yes…he murmured – this…

 

So for about 6 weeks I have been enduring some of the most painful and yet wonderfully releasing myofascial massage up and down my right side of my body.   Everything was so tight.  I had so much scar tissues that needed to be broken up.  I felt like a car that had been nearly totaled but not totaled and I was at the “body shop” get my frame back into alignment.

 

But this MONDAY took me to a new level of appreciation for Dr. Bruce.   He found the small scar on my right foot.

 

When I was 14 (ish) years old I went cross country skiing with my family .   We hadn’t made it very far when I started to feel something in my foot that wasn’t right.  My mom (the nurse) said it would be fine and we would talk a look at later (wait and see).  The pain persisted until it started to affect my walking at that point it couldn’t be ignored.   We discovered it was a benign tumor the size of a 50 cent piece.  I had surgery to remove it.  Honestly hadn’t thought much about it since.

 

Well friends I’m here to say it was the ROOT cause of all my issues.  My tissue surrounding the incision did not heal properly and as a result pulled my right foot outward.  Dr. Bruce in a very calm and warm way went to work breaking down 35 years’ worth of scar tissue.   Aside from birthing my children I have NEVER experienced pain like this. I cried, screamed and cried some more.  Dr. Bruce never gave up on me – he worked diligently until he was satisfied that it was broken up.

 

When I got off the table I felt like I had my leg replaced.  My right foot didn’t flare out like it normally did.  I was walking with an even gate. I stood taller.  I had better mobility in my core.  I was SHOCKED.   It didn’t feel “normal” because my old normal was so out of alignment.

 

This time I was crying not because of the pain but because of all the pain I had endured was paying off. And what about my left knee you might be wondering?  Pain free.  Here’s the hardest part I have to retrain 49 years of walking to a new way of walking otherwise it will go back.

 

This journey has been layered.  The first was to acknowledge that it was going to take time (not a quick fix)  and a lot of out of pocket money (long term investment) to correct this.   The second was the amount of pain I had to go through (that goodness for meditation/breathing).  I am not a fan of pain AT ALL.  Lastly is that it’s going to be hard to break old habits – and that’s where the real work will be – LIFESTYLE CHANGE!!

 

I share this with you so you can see that we all have things we are working through.  Habits that are deeply rooted that throw us out of balance. For me it was very physical.  Where is that for you – is it physical, mental, emotional?

I left the office today and told Dr. Bruce I’m committed have the best mobility for the last half of my life as what I started with in the first half.

 

Dr. Bruce works at Head To Toe in Edmonds WA – let him know I sent you (I don’t get anything, only the satisfaction that you are being served by the BEST).