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October 5, 2005
The Man With the Magic Hands - Part Two
Last winter when my hamstring was acting up, I went to see a doctor (he's an actual MD, not a PhD) who does ART. I blogged about the experience in an entry entitled The Man With the Magic Hands.
Today I went back to see the same doctor, this time for my feet. And he impressed me all over again. I don't know why I waited so long to call him. Mental note - next injury (as much as I hate to admit it, there will ALWAYS be a "next" injury) - call ART doctor ASAP! :)
My feet are in no way healed, and he was a bit skeptical of how much he could do with them actually, but he is so knowledgeable and great to talk to. I'm lucky such a great resource lives and works here in Pittsburgh! He worked on me for about 90 minutes. He worked extensively on my feet and then on my calves and hamstrings/hips some. Unfortunately I was pretty flexible and loose - if I was tight (calves, hammies, feet, etc...), loosening me up would probably have instantly made my feet feel better. But alas, tightness was not the cause of my plantar fascitis. He had some very painful tools that he used to scrape away at my feet - wow did they sound crunchy and wow did it hurt! My feet feel sore now, and he said they likely will for a day or so, but this will hopefully help that tissue break up some and feel better.
He suggested that I see a particular podiatrist in the area that is a runner himself and treats lots of runners. He thinks I need new orthotics at the very least and that perhaps this podiatrist will have some ideas. I'm going to continue to try to run (as much as I can tolerate) and visit the ART doctor as needed for more scraping. I'm hoping between that and new orthotics and some new ideas from good running podiatrist guy - something will become of it all and I will be running pain free sometime in the near future. Not sure at this point, but hopeful.
The ART doctor is fascinating. He is a triathlete himself and has lots of good stories. He apparently treats several elite athletes and so goes to most really big track meets - this year alone he went to the NCAA championships, USA T&F championships and World Track championships in track. He also treats other sport athletes. Pretty cool. In addition, he did his residency where I work so we had fun talking about the mutual doctors we knew.
Anyway, the weird thing about this all, is the guy never charges me. He didn't charge me back in March and then again today. I don't know what to make of it. I feel quite badly. As based on his office and house, he doesn't need my $75, but I find it odd that he doesn't charge for his services. He told me he doesn't charge a lot of his athletes - I get the feeling that he somehow made his money a long time ago and he's not into making it now. Odd. I feel like some kind of pro-bono case or something. Either way, I'm not complaining because I'm quite certain my new orthotics are not going to be free. :)
So by the time I got home it was close to 7 pm (and I went to his office straight from work). The only down-side of seeing him is that he lives south of Pittsburgh and I live north. South of Pittsburgh = lots of traffic and far away from north of Pittsburgh. Lots of driving tonight! Again, not going to complain if my feet somehow feel better when all is said and done. Anyway, I didn't exercise tonight which is probably a good thing considering the beating my feet took today. We shall see how things feel tomorrow!
Posted by beth at October 5, 2005 9:27 PM
Comments
It would be so so cool to have enough money to work for free.
This is very interesting. I (obviously) hope it's effective as well. It's cool that he's an MD and works with so many athletes. Anyway, again, I hope you are feeling better from all of the prodding soon!
Posted by: Audrey at October 6, 2005 4:02 AM
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Posted by: Aalap at October 6, 2005 9:20 AM
I think the orthotics will help. That's the "fix" I'm working on right now, and it hasn't broken yet. I had a good pair from Dr. Wolfe in Hellertown five years ago, and they were really good until about January '03... and the trouble started when I replaced them from someone in Amherst.
Posted by: pjm at October 6, 2005 10:48 AM
The doctor sounds amazing, and I am sure I would feel weird about the free thing as well but it is so cool that he has enough money and enjoys what he does enough to do it for free.
I hope the orthotics do the trick!
Posted by: Barb at October 6, 2005 6:19 PM
Scraping? That sounds painful. I've had great results w/ART. My therapist has resolved 3+ years of hip pain that other chiros and PTs couldn't and fixed other lesser injuries in a jif. I hope ART and the podiatrist get you fixed soon!
Posted by: Leilani at October 7, 2005 2:59 PM