The Source of Pain is Often Far from the Area of Perceived Pain

Teri came to see me today. This was her 9th visit, following a snowmobile incident in January of this year. What had started out as acute pain in her hip and sacrum, had morphed into pins and needles down her entire left side to her foot. She hobbled in and couldn’t walk easily.


Typically I would have expected to find her hip, sacrum, pelvis or lumbar spine out of alignment. But I noticed nothing of the sort upon chiropractic examination.


When I examined her functionally (how her body moved) I could see her left foot and lower leg were not behaving normally. They were not moving, when I gently rotated her foot and leg as she lay face up on my table. Something was preventing the transmission of skeletal forces up through her left foot and leg into her pelvis and torso.


I did some gentle movement of her foot and leg, as she lay on her right side. So that they could begin to find connection and the foot, leg and hip could move synergistically. And while that helped, I decided to go back to the chiropractic table and specifically examine the bones of the foot and lower leg.


Sure enough a closer examination revealed the left calcaneus (heel bone) was subluxated laterally (not dislocated, but out of normal alignment). The left fibula was fixated at the proximal and distal ends.


When we returned to the Feldenkrais table to see how lower extremity was connecting to her upper body; it was evident to both of us that she was moving better and more easily. She stood up and was no longer walking gingerly, but had returned to a more normal gait.


What I found interesting about today’s visit, was the source of her pain was far away from the area she perceived the pain. Moreover it wasn’t where I, or most practitioners, would have thought to look. It was in the foot, ankle and bones of the lower leg that represented the true cause of her suffering.

What’s also very important to note is the integration of all the modalities – Chiropractic, CranioSacral Therapy and the Feldenkrais Method – to achieve the greatest results.