My Sister Injured While Skiiing

by Melinda Luther
(Dothan, AL)

My sister fell while skiing in early December. She believed she injured her knee and the emergency room physician placed her in a universal splint and told her to use crutches.



Follow-up visits with an orthopedist and her primary care doctor revealed little. She sat a lot and at the beginning of January she began to bear weight and the groin pain she’d also complained of got worse.



She recently began physical therapy but that came to an abrupt halt because of intense spasms in the psoas muscle when lying in certain positions.



A recent MRI of her lumbar spine revealed basically nothing. She has only been treated with NSAIDS and her primary care physician wants her to see a neurosurgeon.



I want someone who has seen this before to give some guidance.



Is this a muscle AND nerve problem?

What specialty MD is best to see?

What are the risks and dangers?

What is the prognosis?

Any ideas at all?

——

Response from Stephen at Lower Back Pain Answers:

Hi Melinda,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re sister is so uncomfortable. Here’s my answers to your questions, to the best of my ability:

Is this a muscle AND nerve problem?

While it’s possible to have both a muscle and a nerve problem simultaneously, a nerve problem would likely have been detected by your physician.

As I mention in my article, when allopathic tests come back negative the likelihood that the problem has a muscular origin increases dramatically.

What specialty MD is best to see?

If your sister’s problem has a muscular origin, such as iliopsoas syndrome, then medical doctors may not be the best route as they tend to have little training in the musculoskeletal system.

A conservative alternative might be to work with a massage therapist or neuromuscular therapist.

What are the risks and dangers?

This question is best answered by your physician.

What is the prognosis?

If the problem does, in fact, have a musculoskeletal origin then it’s quite possible to resolve it with a series of treatments. The number of treatments will depend on many factors including…

1) the skill of the practitioner
2) the complexity of the issue
3) whether or not there are layers of muscular compensation to unravel.

I hope this has been of some use you.

Best,

Stephen @ LBPA