Jen had been suffering from left calf pain for six years. Her family physician gave anti-inflammatories, and she received traditional physical therapy consisting of calf stretches. When her symptoms persisted, she saw a specialist, who gave her a walking boot to wear for six weeks to reduce the stress on the calf and Achilles tendon. Her symptoms never really went away, and she then Jen started to notice buttock and thigh pain on the same side. Her husband saw an ad for Virtual PT and convinced her to give it a try as he was desperate to help her find relief.
As an MDT clinician, we always screen the spine first as isolated extremity symptoms often are referred from the spine. Overlooking this critical finding will lead to a poor outcome and chronicity because the treatment would be to the wrong body part.
As soon as we started to move Jen’s spine, there was an effect on her calf symptoms. Repeated movements into extension immediately decreased her calf pain from 6/10 to 2/10. We explained to Jen how the spine refers pain to the leg when there is pressure on a nerve, specifically S1 or the sciatic nerve, referring to the calf. The motion of back extensions reduced the pressure on her nerve.
Jen went onto do the exercises by herself every day, and by her third visit, she no longer had any calf pain!
Chris Erickson, PT, Cert. MDT
