A long read consisting of all the wrong diagnosis

This is going to be a long read, probably a frustrating one as well. But, you need to bear with me here so you can avoid the mistakes I did, and learn lessons from my journey.

THE FIRST PAIN:

Aged 25, moved to a new role within my workplace, and life was spectacular until I felt a sharp knee pain one night, that just wouldn't go away - It was so tough to even stand and bear weight on that right leg. As I am posing for a photo with my friends, I start wondering what did I do wrong that has led to my knee pain - Was it the preparatory jog (for my yoga) that I did a few weeks before that caused strain on to my knee? Was it because of bad shoes? The feeling was so bad. I could recollect glimpses of this same feel I had 6 months prior during my stay outside Bangalore during an office trip. I could not make any sense of what could be the possible reason.

NIGHTMARE AFTER THE VISIT TO THE ORTHO's:

Panicked I make a decision to leave to my hometown (Salem), and get my father along to consult with a local orthopedic doctor who also happens to be in the same neighborhood as my parents. For some reason, I associated familiarity of a person to their level of medical knowledge. Anyway, I hear the words from Dr. Chidambaranathan after he glances through a couple of the newly taken X-Rays of my right knee in different angles -  "Your Knee has some ligament issues, which means you need to avoid a lot of walking, travel in car, avoid stairs and always take up elevators".  I was thrown into a deep shock as in my mind, I am just this normal healthy guy in his early 20's and to hear such a statement put me into shellshock.

MEETING THE POSTURE GUY:

I was angry, and thinking "Really? Was this all and this doctor declares and forecasts my medical condition, just on a short 15-minute visit to his hospital?". My parents put me into a 1-1 yoga session with a senior master and I went there for a few weeks, and nothing much improved. I just could not accept the statement thrown by my doctor, and started researching over the Internet, and found Justin Archer's YouTube channel (Aka The Posture Guy). God, he was a blessing in disguise. I learnt the concepts of body-biomechanics from him and how all the 8 load bearing joints of our body impact each other (Ankles, Knees, Hips & Shoulders). I really would have been in a bad position today, possibly taking the route of orthopedic surgeries, if not me bumping into Justin. I reached out to him, we had a personal skype call. He assessed my body. Gave me simple exercises to relieve of pain management, and it really helped. 

MEETING A PHYSIOTHERAPIST:

 The Orthopedic doctor I visited earlier did not even bother looking anywhere else apart from my knee, like how Justin assessed me. With this new found knowledge,  I travelled back to Bangalore. Looked up Practo (A service which maintains ratings and reviews for each city's doctors based on verified patient's feedback). Found a physiotherapist Dr. Sitaraman Sunderasan and reached to him. He assessed me, and put me through a 21 day knee rehab program, which alleviated me of my pain, and then I ha a few lower back issues later and for which he again put me through a Back program as well. These regimes included a lot of stretching, strengthening, fancy machines (don't remember their names) aimed at reducing the inflammation around the pain area. I was much better at this stage, and he put me through a regular Pilates class. Life was back to normal at 95% and I still could not figure out that missing 5%. Spoke to the Physio, and he made me to gait analysis, and put my foot through a foot scanner (used for identifying the body weight distribution between both the feet). There was 53% of weight of my body put on Right foot and 47% weight on the left. To put this back into a state of correction, I was recommended custom insoles, and custom footwear, which I wore for a good amount of time. But, then my work profile involved very less travelling to office and I was barefoot at home most of the time. And this pain in the ankle area kept coming back.

PICKING UP VIBRAM SHOES:

So, I went back to Justin (The Posture guy) from YouTube and put forward my queries. He suggested a few exercises and explained the importance of how ankle and hip alignment are directly related. Also helped me pick a new set of Vibram minimalistic footwear. Started wearing them and felt very comfortable. Life moved fast as I found myself a girlfriend, and I decided to travel to Chennai to a doctor who practices Pete Egoscue's methods. (Justin was also a student of Pete). Considering the shorter distance, I travelled and did a 14 day rehab and purchased the much awaited Egoscue Tower equipment (Google this up and check out the videos). This was an awesome find. Helped me get back to alignment every time. 

STRESSFUL DAYS OF NORMAL LIFE:

Life continued to move on all the way from 2016 to 2019. Throughout this period, I always kept treating the symptoms (muscle pain on the right side of body - groin tightness, hamstring tightness, lower back tightness, etc) through a lot of massages. I gained a lot of weight, as subconsciously ever since 2015 I never had the courage to run fearing something would go wrong. So, I had to constantly put myself through Ketogenic diets to keep reducing my weight. I was also helping my brother's startup at this time, and became very moody for reasons I could never understand.

ENTERING INTO POWERLIFTING:

I was so frustrated that I decided to pick up my long term desire - Powerlifting. Found a world champion in the same city as I was - Mohammed Azmat (GPA, WPC Gold Medalist -2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. WR in M1 Deadlifts of WPC Full Power!) The most wonderful and humble human being I ever met. He agreed to train me on the 3 lifts - deadlifts, squats & bench press and help me chart out a workout plan month on month. My secret hope was that I get cured of my body pain issue through this association. And as every week, my coach monitors my progress he keeps correcting my form and after a certain point when I complained of pain in my groin. He recommended me to visit a physio named Dr. Chandru. He was also a golden find, because it was the result of his treatment that led me to finding Hyprocure and narrowing down the root cause of my problem to my ankle/foot - the overpronation (My long staying enemy who never left me all this while whether good or bad times).

MEETING THE DRY NEEDLING SPECIALIST:

Anyway, Dr. Chandru who used to treat Indian football players, introduced me to a new treatment called Dry needling. It started with my biggest complaint area - tight right groin. and from thereon, he released every following muscle chain (Inner thigh, tight calf, hamstring, glutes, obliques area, shoulder & trapezius). I felt like I got a new body. This treatment was nothing like I had experienced ever before. All my symptomatic issues were resolved. I felt really light and great. I was super happy, and as I was about to excitedly write a long review post for Dr. Chandru,  I noticed my ankle overpronation again and asked him "Doc, can dry needling help this issue as well?" and he responded "No". As I was expressing that I want to get a surgery done for this (no clue what surgery though), he recommended me to take up a 30 day ankle rehab exercise regime. His associate trained me everyday. It felt better, but the overpronation did not change one bit.

ANKLE REHAB:

And there I observed one of the important epiphanies I had received. Out body is crazily intelligent. Whoever tries to assess my body or gait, I have subconsciously never let my ankle pronate to its full extent, because my body so well adapted in forcefully maintaining an arch to give me better stability. AS I forcefully let myself loose, I see the extent of overpronation. IT was really scary to let myself loose, and I see its full extent. Then I realized why my body forcefully overcompensates, if not for it I wouldn't be able to even walk. AND THESE ACTIVITIES MY BODY DOES FOR OVERCOMPENSATING THE COLLAPSING ARCH ON RIGHT FOOT IS WHAT HAS LEAD TO ALL THE TIGHT MUSCLE GROUPS IN THE UPPER CHAIN (Calf, hamstring, Groin, oblique, lower back, shoulder, trapezius, etc.).

COVID-19 STOPPING ALL TREATMENTS:

Nevertheless, I continued my ankle rehab program until the COVID-19 situation hit and the clinic was closed for a long time, and I too returned back to Hometown Salem. Fast forwarding 9 months from there, I had zero pain. But overpronation was always there that I did not even bother to notice. And one fine day, what I thought was all my personal issues messing up my head I realized that I could not sleep one bit, because of not feeling comfort in any position. I got super upset, that this never ending problem of body pain problems repeat itself again. I quickly search up the Internet to find a dry needling specialist in my hometown. I make day 1 visit and just explain all my conditions and history and return back home to get treated from her the next day. Then it struck me, that I am just continuously fixing the symptoms the whole time (Of course, finding more and more effective ways of fixing the symptoms), but I have not done anything worth enough to fix the root cause. Even the ankle rehab was of no use. And Voila Internet from there and a lot more things led to my today's decision of taking up the surgery on Dec 15th 2015. 

Another post maybe, to explain how I finally decided I am going to take up the Hyprocure procedure and how I decided the surgeon for it.

See in the next post.

Thanks Everyone,
Nivas