After his assessment with me, he wasn’t really sold on the idea that custom made foot orthotics would actually help control the stability of his knees and ankles and opted to focus on doing the exercises that were prescribed to him.
A month had gone by and just today I saw that he had booked to come back in to be casted for a pair of custom made foot orthotics. During his appointment with me, he had mentioned that he was completing the exercises that were recommended for him and noticed very little improvement. Throughout this month, prior to this second appointment with me, he had did his own research on line and learnt that there was 2 types of conditions that can occur in the knee joint. The one was - in his words, knee joint breaking down and deteriorating, and the other type of condition he quoted was having “runners knee”. Along with his reading in depth of the 2 types of conditions, he noted that the write up on runners knee, the best treatment was orthotics. And this is why I saw him back in my office!
Once he had mentioned these two types of conditions in the knee, he was referring to was Knee Osteoarthritis and Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome and both of these conditions can be treated the same or different depending on the severity of the condition.
I found my clients story to be very interesting to me because he reinforced to me that more and more people are self-diagnosing themselves by what they are reading online. In this case, that is exactly what he did. The internet has become this powerful tool to look up almost anything you need answered. My client also taught me a lesson - It doesn’t matter how in depth I go during a clinical assessment on the cause of the condition, if they are skeptical to begin with, the answers I provide to the individual will only be confirmed when an individual does their own research and the explanation to them coincides with what they have read about online.
For a more thorough explanation of Knee OA and Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome, I have explained both in my Condition and Treatment section.
