(Foot and Ankle Pain Continued)

same situation further along the road. In Marie’s case, this subject was particularly sensitive because it was related to the delicate subject of weight. After being diagnosed by her physician, Marie asked how she developed the condition in the first place. She was told simply that it was because she was overweight. While it is true that the force of weight can play into these types of injuries, I did not believe this was the case with Marie. Rather than adding insult to injury, had the doctor looked at her foot alignment or gait pattern and compared both feet and ankles when she stood upright, he could have possibly realized that Marie’s weight was not the culprit here. If it were, wouldn’t both feet be affected? After all they would’ve been supporting relatively the same amount of weight. Offering this type of blanket diagnosis without first performing sufficient analysis can actually work against a patient’s recovery.

Believing this diagnosis really put Marie in a position of catch-22. She wanted to lose weight to help her foot, but was suffering too much to perform the types of exercises required to lose the weight. As a result, Marie felt that hope was passing her by. She came to me hoping that she could get some type of relief that would allow her to begin the suggested weigh loss plan.

In the beginning stages of weight loss and other rehabilitation courses emotional challenges often come into play. So with Marie, I thought that educating her about the mechanics of her foot, ankle, knee, hip and pelvis was the best place to begin. I felt it was extremely important to teach her that her body worked in segments or kinetic chains and that her weight was not to blame in this case. Maybe it’s