Lost my trust in sports physio. Please Help :(

[MrPhysio+]

Hi,
Before I make some suggestions it would be good to know the answer to the following questions.
1. Would you say that you are generally very flexible even without stretching?
2. If you are flexible, do you have a fair complexion ie red or blonde coloured hair and blue eyes?
3. Do you have Irish, Scottish or Scandinavian heritage?
If so, have you been assessed for hypermobile joints?

If not, do you have any altered sensation eg numbness or tingling.

Overall, a set of problems that become chronic can occur for a number of reasons.
The problems may be unrelated, caused by an initial problem that results in your body
compensating resulting in poor biomechanics, underlying genetics or as you have suspected
bad treatment / assessment.
The lower limb problem could be sciatica - look up piriformis syndrome. I can assist with
a home treatment if the net infom is insufficient.
The shoulder problems may be due to a C7 nerve root irritation that has progressively altered
your correct posture. Overtight pectorals will bring the shoulder ball forward in the socket
and the muscles between your shoulder blades will become inhibited. Eventually you will
create a shoulder that will grab at 90 degrees when lifting the elbow away from your side.

Eventually the human shoulder has problems - 100% of 80 year olds, 80% of 70 year olds
and 50% of 60 year olds show rotator cuff tears on scanning, even without symptoms.

Over use of shoulders speeds the process.

Let me know if any of the above makes sense. I agree with physiointhesand that advice without hands on assessment is
risky, but we are trying to help anyway.
mrphysio+ [email protected]

[ok_cub2008]

1. I'm not very flexible without stretching, no. In fact quite the opposite. Until about 6 months ago, I could barely reach down to the height of my ankles, let alone my toes (with straight leg). I started to spend an hour a day doing general stretches to try and help my left knee problem, and now I can nearly get my palms flat on the floor. But yes, I'm not naturally very flexible.

I am not of those descents either, I'm white but not the freckly type, but as far as I know I'm English going back many generations (hope that doesn't put you off as an Aussie ).

The feeling in my right shoulder alters from a "dull constant pain" as if it is made of stone, to a sharper "fresh" tension feeling. The dull feeling tends to be when I wake up in the morning, whereas it gets to a more "traditional" feeling of tension as the day goes on. I do get some tingling in the right side of my face and neck (very slight), as if almost like an echo of the feeling in my traps. The first symptoms of this pain were when I was playing a PC computer game for long periods when 17 (I was doing no activity at the time because my chiropractor had made me afraid to do anything).

The pain in my hip/right leg varies also. Most of the time the hip area just feels "heavy", like when I try and step forward with my right leg, it feels like the muscles in my side have to lift the whole hip up, rather than the right leg just being able to raise forwards in a relaxed manner, like it does in my left leg. I do get a shooting pain in my right leg, but usually only after walking a lot the day before. I must stress I haven't had these symptoms (at least noticeably) for a few years until recently. When I saw my physio at the time about it, he said I had a glute weakness and that the glutes weren't firing, and the exercises he gave me seemed to "cure" it.

I really appreciate your reply, and I know it is pretty dangerous to make suggestions without a proper assessment. But at the moment I just don't know what direction to take. When I go to my GP they don't take me seriously because they think I am just being a perfectionist. But I still feel that there hasn't been enough investigation from people with the right expertise. I know when people get older things start to break down, but I'm only 22, the last 5 years have devastated my social life and had a big impact on my mental health, and if there is anything I can do now to get as close to perfect health as possible I want to do it, so at least I can have a shot at preventing some of those degenerative problems from happening when I'm older.