My friend Kirsten was looking for some fellow Rhode Island Digital Media Women to participate in a blogger project with Olympic Physical Therapy & Foot Orthotics and I jumped at the chance.
My appointment was this morning at the Wakefield office. I had to take the twins with me and the whole office was so nice about it. I brought the iPad and cell phone for games to keep them occupied, promising everyone they would sit quietly and everyone was really nice to them and told me it was fine to have them there. (I did notice a few other small ones around then too.)
My appointment with Bert lasted about 40 minutes, and included not only a bio-mechanical evaluation but a new pair of running shoes. First we talked about what I thought my problems were, what I have been told over the years. I explained that I have pretty bad knee pain at times, which has happened on and off since I was a teenager - and more than once Patellofemoral Syndrome has been mentioned.
In high school I started - and promptly stopped - physical therapy at University Orthopedics. In college I didn't do anything about it when it came back and another doctor spoke with me about it. Most recently, my hip was clicking and my knee hurt so I was in the doctor's office again. My current doctor is great. He offered physical therapy, but said I could do it all at home and gave me several printouts ... which I never ever did. I can't even lie about it.
Bert looked over my current Adidas sneakers (which did not come cheap) and showed me WHY they were not helping my feet. I had no idea I wasn't even picking out sneakers right for my feet. Almost no support around the ankles and I could pretty much twist the sneaker in half, which meant the rest of my foot wasn't really being supported either.
We did some stretches, I walked a bit, and we figured out that in addition to not having enough support, I needed a special insert in my right sneaker. Which had to be modified. Something about the arch of that foot and how part of my foot comes down when I walk before it is supposed to - which throws everything off. Bert handed me a pair of Women's Gel Asics to try on and the difference was unbelievable!
I didn't even know he had put an insert in my right shoe at the time. After I walked a little, he took the insert out to modify it a little, then put it back in. I already feel like I am walking differently. I can not get over the difference with these sneakers.
I will be honest, I went into this totally skeptical. I thought what will they do that is any different than what the last 3 doctors I have seen over the years have done. I tried to go in with an open mind anyway and I am so glad that I am a part of this project. I'm not saying that I didn't have good doctors over the last few years, but they also didn't specialize in this sort of thing. That bio-metric evaluation is $125 and believe me I know how steep that sounds, but I feel like that evaluation was more than worth it to figure out what was really going on.
I love that they do it all on site. Physical therapy if you need it, the bio-metric evaluations, even the shoes (which run about $85-125, not including any modifications, such an inserts, etc). The staff is friendly and Bert was incredibly knowledgeable.
For the next few days, I will be slowly breaking these new sneakers in as I walk the boys to school and back three times a day. Monday is a fresh new start. I will be meeting Jules at the gym and getting back to it. And I am signing up for another 5K. You can follow all of it here, and I will include a piece or two on Buy-Her as well.
If you are local, I am telling you it is so worth your time and money to check out Olympic Physical Therapy & Foot Orthotics. They have five locations providing the residents of Rhode Island and Southeastern MA with outpatient physical therapy, sports medicine rehabilitation and performance improvement. The locations the girls and I have tried out are Wakefield and Middletown and I am in love. I had no idea things like this existed. In addition to their website, you can check them out on their Facebook page too.
*Disclaimer: I was not paid for this post. Olympic did comp my bio-mechanical evaluation and shoes in exchange for blog postings. Opinions are all my own.
