Dr. Nancy Quick saved my life.... and it only took three PT sessions. Allow me to explain…read more
I'm a lifelong runner and at age 47 I'd been lucky enough not to experience any serious injuries...until six months ago. That's when I started having heel pain: a combination of dull-but-unending warm pain, punctuated by occasional "lightning bolts" of white-hot pain to my heel, sometimes when I was putting weight on it but sometimes not; there didn't seem to be a pattern.
For months I limped from one medical office to another, seeking help from doctors, a physical therapist, and a podiatrist. I was diagnosed with an entrapped Baxter's nerve, plantar fasciitis/fasciosis, and bone damage. But after months of various treatments, my pain was not going away. In fact, by December, the situation had gotten so bad that I was wearing an orthotic boot whenever I stood or walked, because I couldn't bear to put any weight on my foot.
Fellow runners will understand what I mean when I say that after six months without running, I was an absolute mess. In addition to the physical pain I was in every day, I was mentally and emotionally frustrated by forced inactivity. My mood was bleak and my hope was fading. I could not imagine a life without running... and yet that reality was starting to settle in. After all, I'd consulted a lot of smart healthcare professionals, and I was still in a lot of pain!
And then, just before the turn of the new year, I came across a recommendation for Dr. Quick and Berkana Rehabilitation on Reddit. And thank goodness I did!
Alexa at Berkana managed to squeeze me into Dr. Quick's schedule, and Dr. Quick listened attentively to my tale of woe. She examined my foot carefully and came up with a plan. And amazingly, after just three hands-on physical therapy sessions, my pain is almost gone and I am walking normally most of the time. To be clear, I still have work to do to rehab and strengthen my foot (all those months of inactivity don't just reverse themselves overnight)... but in just a few sessions with Dr. Quick, I've transformed from someone deep in despair into someone thinking about what my next race might be. I have hope for the future again.
So runners: If you're in pain, please do yourself a favor and call Berkana Rehabilitation, because Dr. Quick is the best of the best. She has 25+ years of experience as a physical therapist, 12 of them as a professor and researcher in the field. But even more than that, she "gets" us, because she's a runner herself. She is also a great listener and a keen observer, picking up on tiny things you might not even be aware of yourself. I am so grateful to her for the difference she's made in my life and I'm confident that whatever your issue might be, she'll be able to help you, too.
