Dooley Noted: 4/1/2015
Since it’s the day of fools, I thought I’d share a way I got fooled about health.
In 2010, I had such intense knee pain that it would wake me up in the middle of the night.
It felt as if someone was stabbing me in my knee. I would scream with pain as I pulled my knee into a more extended position.
I wasn’t squatting. I wasn’t doing much of anything for fitness besides light cardio.
I got all the fancy imaging, as well as the fancy diagnoses:
Quadriceps tendinopathy
Slight knee joint effusion
When I asked why I had pain, I was asked if I squatted.
At the time, I didn’t.
I was asked if I took a lot of stairs.
At that time, I didn’t.
I went to some physical therapy and received some chiropractic. I felt better. But I didn’t get relief from the sharpness that awoke me.
No one bothered to tell me that my sum was greater than my parts.
Maybe my knee moved for an ankle or hip that couldn’t.
Maybe systemic inflammation exacerbated the pain felt at an overworked knee.
Maybe the same mind perceiving pain was the mind that also hated her job.
Maybe my knee pain was a combination of factors.
So, I went after all of them.
I switched to zero drop shoes to force weight into my hindfoot.
I cleaned up my diet and started meditating and doing breathing drills.
I started squatting to get my hips moving.
I changed the way I felt about my job.
I took no medications. I just changed the way I lived to not set myself up for pain.
That knee pain was a much needed educational tool.
Five years later, I can tell you I haven’t had a single incident of knee pain since 2010.
I got fooled into thinking my structures alone were causing my knee pain.
But the brain perceives the pain.
I had to change my movement. But I had to change my brain.
I am tired of professionals fooling people into thinking certain activities cause pain.
Squatting doesn’t cause knee pain.
Stairs don’t either.
I squat and take stairs quite a bit in my current life. But my knee pain isn’t there.
Pain is multi-factorial. Don’t get fooled.
Pain can present if a pattern is awakened. Only then can certain movements create pain.
You can be fooled into thinking all pain is caused by structure.
Or. you can learn pain is a program the body can run with or without structural damage.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley