05 Mar Limping To Walking, Astym Resolves Ankle Pain
I wear many hats in my daily life. I’m a mother of two, three if you count my fur baby and I do count him as one of my children. I work full time in an office. I am a wife. I am also an athlete in one of the toughest sports. I am a roller girl. I skate for the Ohio Valley Roller Girls and we train hard. During one of our training sessions I fell and broke my ankle. I have no extravagant story like I took on an entire pack and was able to finish the game and our team won. Nothing that magical or amazing I just fell and broke my ankle six days before our first game ever. I had surgery three days later to put a plate on my ankle. I woke up from that surgery and that’s when the pain set in.
I was prescribed pain medication and shifted back and forth between my family doctor and my orthopedic surgeon. Physical therapy was suggested in passing and I thought I’m healing up and able to do this on my own why bother. I was released to go back to regular activity roughly four months later but it felt like years later. The pain never really went away. My doctor didn’t understand why I was still in pain and frankly neither did I. She was tired of prescribing me medication and I was tired of taking it. I know I favored my right side because it hurt and I had limited mobility. I couldn’t point my toe on that side so it affected how I skated. Both of my doctors told me to quit the sport I loved. I thought you wouldn’t tell a football player to quit why are you telling me to quit?
Roller derby was in my blood and it broke my heart to think I wasn’t going to be able to play anymore. This sport had not only helped me lose forty pounds it also put me more in touch with my community and has given me a bond with other woman that I had never had before how was I supposed to just walk away? He actually said “If you’re going to need a prescription to continue to abuse yourself maybe it’s time to stop abusing yourself.” When I told him that wasn’t an option he said well lets try physical therapy then. I was hesitant it had been a couple months shy of a year since I was injured I didn’t think it would do much good, but it was worth a shot. It was literally ripping my heart out to think I was going to have to give up on something I loved so much.
The day I stepped into Mountain River Physical Therapy in Wheeling, WV and met Justin my therapist everything started to make more sense. The things I said to him and how he made me feel like I validated. My pain was genuine and he gave me an Astym treatment that day. The next morning I was able to walk down my steps “normally” not one step at a time like a little old lady. It was wonderful I hadn’t done that in almost a year. I played a bout that weekend and later watched the footage. After just a single Astym treatment I looked like a totally different skater. It literally feels like a new life has been breathed back into my ankle. The pain isn’t there anymore. I have just finished my last day of therapy and I am beyond grateful for what Astym has done for me. I seriously thought I was going to have to deal with pain for the rest of my life. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my story. I’m sure people are tired of hearing about it. I’m a believer and I tell anyone that will listen about my story. Astym gave me my life back, THANK YOU!
Stefanie, Recreational Athlete
Bridgeport, OH
Clinic: Mountain River Physical Therapy
