ANECDOTE OF THE JAR

ARTHROSCOPY KNEE SURGERY

Mr van den B, 77 years old, consulted me two months ago with severe inner knee pain. He had great difficulty walking, and bending the knee gave sharp stabs. The pijn started 4 months earlier after he had to do a lot of bending after a big storm blew thru Holland, dropping 300 sticks and branches in his garden.

4 orthopedic tests were positive. The Drop Home, Medial McMurrays, MCL test and Clarke's test. All of which was a bit confusing: what was the primary source of pain? Most obvious was a painful click when straightening the knee with McMurray's test.

The MRI scan was not pretty. The medial meniscus was badly damanged.

Within three weeks of the start of the treatment, all four tests were negative and he could walk much better. But pressing the clutch in his Model T Ford remains painful, and he had some residual pain at night, sometimes quite a lot.

His doctor has persuaded him to go for an operation, "because it could happen again". Whilst no miracle, for a problem that he had for so long, I was very encouraged with his progress. He and his doctor not. I wish him well.

It's a difficult question: when should one accept a condition, with it's limitations, instead of continually wanting to be perfectly young and able to do everything again?

Sometimes we suffer with pain that we needn't experience, and sometimes after even more complex treatment, the condition becomes even worse. The horns of a dilemma. Having just lost a good friend, a very fit 60 year old man, who went in for a minor procedure, and had a stroke and died the next day, I'm wary of the man with the knife in his hand! But good surgery can be a wonder, the risks albeit greater. ARTHROSCOPY KNEE SURGERY.

HIP ARTHRITIS and LUMBAR STENOSIS.

Mrs P is an 82 year old woman with a long history of low back pain and hip arthritis. A hopeless muddle of confusing signs and symptoms.

After suffering for two years with left buttock pain that radiating down her left leg, she was eventually told that the cause was hip arthritis, and a hip replacement would fix her pain. However, the operation did not one jot for the pain in her LEFT lower leg. Eventually the hip surgeon admitted that the pain in her leg was not from her hip (which it wasn't) but from her back. Indeed. That was three years ago.

She first consulted me two months ago, very miserable, and unable to walk even ten minutes. Unable to do even basic shopping, she was faced with an old age home, her worst dread.

A careful examination revealed three things:

1. A successful LEFT hip replacement.

2. A severe left sided sciatica caused by spinal stenosis. CHIROPRACTIC HELP Lumbar stenosis.
   
   
3. Severe, advanced RIGHT hip arthritis. HIP ARTHRITIS
   
   

Without all three I wouldn't have given her a chance. So she did her exercises faithfully, and followed my instructions to the letter.

What I was expecting to be the worst hurdle was the spinal stenosis causing pain down her left leg. Actually it responded quite quickly, within a month it was 50% less and now she has almost no left leg pain.

We are now into the third month of care, and Mrs P is very pleased. More so than I am oddly. She still can only walk with painkillers (for the right arthritic hip), but for her the treatment has made one enormous difference. With said painkillers she can now walk for half an hour, long enough to do her basic shopping. We're keeping the old age home at bay ...

Enjoy reading? Don't mind a bit of spice and controversy? Perhaps you'll enjoy this free chapter from my next (fourth) book A FAMILY AFFAIR.

VERTIGO

Mrs B celebrated her 85th last week. Her's is the next anecdote of the jar. She proudly told me today that all her children, grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren (all boys) were present. Number ten is on the way, and the big question is whether the football team is going to be all male, or is the goalie or striker going to be a girl?!

Perhaps more important, she said that she has had only one attack of vertigo this year - in comparison with 7 last year. And she gets it badly - a minimum of three days flat on her back, any move making her terribly giddy.

The difference? She does her Brandt and Daroff exercises EVERY SINGLE DAY she proudly said. You can download them for free from Chiropractic Tips, or if you can read Dutch, then the Brandt en Daroff exercises for duizelig /vertigo.

"Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics."

- attributed to Mark Twain.

Athlete's Foot.

(now this is going to get tongues wagging! Who? Journalists have the right to remain silent, yes? Me too.)

"I HAVE HAD, IN OVER 35 YEARS OF PRACTICE, SEVERAL PATIENTS WHO CLAIM TO HAVE HAD ATHLETES FOOT CURED AFTER THE CORRECTION OF A MISALIGNED PUBIC SYMPHYSIS.

WHAT IS THE EXPLANATION?"

I'll admit to be a little astonished. But why? If Chiropractic can help women fall pregnant and help with menstrual cramps, indigestion and Infantile Colic, why not this anecdote of the jar with infection too? We already know that small children with Otitis Media respond well to Chiropractic (though I have no experience thereof) and Shingles (there I have plenty of experience), then why not with Athlete's Foot. But why the Pubic Symphysis subluxation? Neither he nor I know, and I confess to be being a Doubting Thomas until some research comes up confirming that subluxations of the Pubic Symphysis are (one of?) the underlying causes of an outbreak of a fungal infection popularly known as Athlete's Foot.

Regarding treatment of a misaligned Pubic Symphasis, he says ...

"One of my specialist areas was pregnancy and pelvic dysfunction syndrome. You are well aware of the problems with carrying and giving birth I am sure. After birth the pubic symphysis has frequently opened to let the baby out but does not always return to its original position. We find that on palpation, patient supine, you can feel either the superior left or right edge will be superior or inferior and anterior or posterior. This of course will affect the whole position of the pelvic girdle and can cause problems in the SI joints.

Manipulation is carried out using a quick light toggle recoil to the anterior or superior surface of the bones and/or quick light pisiform thrust along the longitudinal (head to feet) border of the symphysis.

Together with Pelvic rotation and torque, and the SI adjustment this has proved to be very effective in treating pelvic dysfunction problems."

I confess to only very rarely examining the pubic symphysis. One of the great benefits of pages like Anecdote of the Jar, is that it broadens my perspective. I'll be checking the pubes regularly now.

Two men ...

Mr A decided to consult me. I won't pretend it was easy. He stood in a posture akin to the leaning tower of Pisa.

A banker of some prominence, I had a tough time convincing him that he should work from home for some weeks, sitting as little as possible, and at least until he was out of the antalgic posture. What's an antalgic posture? POSTERO MEDIAL DISK HERNIATION ... Within three weeks he was standing upright and the pain in his leg was abating. It was a full eight weeks of twice a week treatment (less frequent towards the end in the rehab phase when I was teaching him exercises that I expect him to do to the end of his days. I do them myself every morning without fail. I also had a hernia some fifteen years ago.)

He came in today beaming for his two monthly treatment. I did very little. The main treatment was the addition of a heel lift - his left leg is 9mm shorter than the right. A happy ending to this Anecdote of the Jar, but the next ...

Mr X on, the other hand, consulted me only two weeks ago. A compliant man, he continued to follow the "best-care" medical guidelines his doctor was advocating, even though he knew it wasn't working. He makes a quite different contribution to ANECDOTE OF THE JAR. Six months ago he had the first back operation, and for some reason the surgeon completely missed the lesion. The post-operative MRI was exactly the same as the first. A huge prolapse.

Did you know that solid scientific research concludes that you are less likely to end up in the state if you first consult a chiropractor rather than a medical doctor for a low back complaint?

A prominent medical journal states: "A UCLA low back pain study published in Spine 30(19) found that: The fact that back pain patients have better satisfaction if they choose chiropractic care is now beyond debate. This has been consistently demonstrated by observational studies and randomized trials."

Oh, there is one other significant difference between Mr A and Mr X. The latter is a smoker. Oodles of research showing that smoking is the single biggest factor leading to the so-called FAILED BACK SYNDROME.

Update: Mr X got the use of his bladder back within one week of starting chiropractic treatment, but no reduction in pain (was Rome built in a day?) so he's decided to go with the surgeon's advice. A third surgery. Good luck, Mr X. There's no good news from this Anecdote of the Jar. Chiropractic Research ...

Mr A's father

Mr A inherited the short leg from his father, in techie jargon we call it a leg length inequality. Let's call dad Mr AA. He makes another fine Anecdote of the Jar. More about Leg length inequality RESEARCH. ANECDOTE OF THE JAR

Mr AA, aged 72, gives us a fine ANECDOTE OF THE JAR. He has had regular low back pain for the last 15 years, but in the last eighteen months, he started to experience severe 'fatigue' in his legs, and walked in a slightly flexed posture. Straightening up immediately caused pain in the low back. What was of more concern was that a test called Kemps immediately caused radiating pain down his right leg. Bending forwards relieved the pain in his back and leg.

However the Slump test for a slipped disc was negative. Read more about the Slump test ... There was no doubt about the diagnosis. An ominous condition called lumbar stenosis where degenerative growths from the facet joints were affecting the spinal cord. Read more about CHIROPRACTIC HELP Lumbar stenosis.

ANECDOTE OF THE JAR

Backs are the most strange and unpredictable things. Despite a very poor prognosis, within three weeks Mr AA was walking up straight, and could walk several kilometres without the fatigue in his legs. We've started the rehab phase (he's on these exercises every morning for life. It only takes 2 mins. You can get them from Chiropractic Tips.).

What did I do? I adjusted his sacrum, lying on his tum, using a Thompson drop protocol, part of the usual Sacroiliac Joint treatment. Then we adjusted the fifth lumbar vertebra which was fixated, lying on both sides. Using a drop technique, it's gentle but firm, with no audible releases. Bob's your uncle. Mr AA can walk again. Remember, this is only an Anecdote of the Jar. Chiropractic can't cure every case of spinal stenosis, and especially when it's in the neck. More SPINAL STENOSIS explanation ...

More about Sacroiliac Joint treatment ... ANECDOTE OF THE JAR

Mr AA is indignant, and rightly so. Why did his doctor tell him that he must just accept that he's old and there was nothing more to be done? It takes a bit of getting used to, but the Dutch are a very direct people. I'd love to be a fly on the wall next time he consults his doctor!

"There are none so blind as those who WILL not see."

French proverb.