Colson has been seeing the most amazing Feldenkrais physical therapist for about a year. It is a long story, and here is the short version. According to the orthopedic doc, his outer leg bones grew faster than his inner ones, causing his ankles and knees to point toward the floor. In my defense, I asked the pediatrician, on Grandma’s recommendation, about it every year and by year six the ped sent him to the orthopedic. So much for just growing out of it. The orthopedic said Colson had one more year to grow out of it and if he didn’t then he would need surgery to stop his outer leg bones from growing for awhile. This would let his inner bones catch up, and then more surgery to somehow turn the growth on for the outer bones. Well, I knew that Colson wasn’t growing out of it, and surgery was a money making absurdity.
Ryan got laid off, so we couldn’t afford to take action, but when he got a job again we were off to the chiropractor, who achieved amazing results. When Ryan got a better job, we went to the Feldenkrais PT as well. Their working together has resulted in straight legs for Colson (with some bulging at the insides of the knee and ankle because bone deposited there thanks to the gravity and their downward direction for over six years.
The PT has been unreal. She has solved things the chiropractor thought were unsolvable. And this leads us to Colson’s Wild Night last night. Colson had a growth spurt and when that occurs, the body wants to go back to its old behaviors. Colson’s legs were showing some regression. Our PT did this wild eye and leg movement thing to break his body out of its almost lifelong pattern immediately, resetting his horizon and reorganizing his neural connections, and Colson was fried. Walking was a trip, literally, and he was a bit goofy. He spent the rest of the day dealing with rolling waves of lethargy and headache, and today he is better.
It was crazy watching this session unfold and then watch what happened afterwards. Today we are back at it – Colson will soon be standing on a Styrofoam roller and bending and looking around and rolling it like a lumberjack. With this training he should win log rolling contests fairly young. It is pretty impressive.
MY UPDATE
I see the same PT and have organized a number of group classes to cut down on cost. I have had a few victories. I can play basketball with Colson and not have to worry about the repercussions of quick movements if you know what I mean (see Pelvic Floor – Do Those Exercises). My first successful basketball practice in this regard happened last week, after almost four months of doing these exercises daily. No geriatric diapers for me…I expect.
My posture is greatly improved. I am finding neutral easily, which is the goal according to our PT, and I am even better than when I wrote this post: My Posture is so AMAZINGLY Better!!
My TMJ is mildly less bothersome. I am going to keep doing those exercises.
Recently I went to the PT because I didn’t like how my feet were looking or feeling. My second toe was migrating under my big toe on the right foot. I have messed up feet to begin – see Going Barefoot. My PT told me that all I needed to do was stand with my feet under my hips and walk that way too. I have always been a wide stander and walker. Yesterday, one month later, she took a peek at them during Colson’s visit. She said they are definitely better and I likely don’t need any therapy – just stand and walk properly. I can tell that my second toe is not as far under my big toe. Yay! Because of this adjustment, the ache in my leg joints adjacent to the pelvis is greatly reduced and I suspect it will go away eventually.
Amazing how messed up modern life has made us and how much work it is to undo it! But, it can be done, thanks to a great PT. If you haven’t checked out Feldenkrais, it is worth a look. Very different from “normal.”
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