Flat Tire?

My son and I were recently changing a flat tire on his mountain bike. We were just about to start pumping up the new tube, when my wife calls out and tells us to make sure there’s nothing in the tire. Not wanting to undo everything we’ve already done, but also not wanting to get another flat tire right away, I swallow my pride, say, “Thanks, honey!” and pull the new tube out to make sure there’s nothing in the tire. You guessed it, we found a small piece of metal that was primed and ready to pop the next tube that pressed against it!

Believe it or not, taking care of our bodies isn’t too different from changing my son’s mountain bike tire. Let’s use knee pain for our example. There’s most likely some fairly simple things that we can do with your knee to get it feeling better. But just like putting a new tube in the tire before checking the tire, if there is a cause for the knee pain that we haven’t addressed, your knee pain is going to come right back just like my son’s new tube would have popped again. 

The unfortunate thing here is more than the fact that your knee pain is back. Now you’ve probably started thinking, “Well, I guess I just have to live with this pain.” Or you figure that physical therapy simply doesn’t work.

At NW Mobile PT, we check upstream and downstream of your painful joint. We make sure there isn’t a cause for your knee pain coming from your foot or ankle or from your hip. We also screen your back. For example, if you have a tight ankle and it causes your hip to turn out while you’re walking or running, which then puts extra strain on your knee, now we’ve got the cause for your knee pain. If we make your knee feel better without looking at your foot, ankle, or hip (or your back), you can see now how that knee pain is going to come right back. 

Do yourself a favor and save yourself a headache and make sure there’s no thorns in your tire before you put in the new tube and make sure that you (or your PT) is checking upstream and downstream of your painful joint so that you can get back to doing what you enjoy!