How long did you wait before coming to see us for Physical Therapy (PT)?
So I arrived in Austin in August on the job hunt and I realized that I could not be in pain while I was sitting in a job from 9:00 to 5:00. So I made the decision pretty quickly that I needed to find some sort of relief. I did my research and I stumbled upon CORE Therapy and it all kind of happened within a couple weeks…
What was your problem? How bad was it?
I didn’t know I had a problem for a couple years. I just knew that I was in pain and it all happened when I was in high school. Around ninth grade I finally broke my parents down and got a doctor visit and realized that I had some disk problems going on where they were disintegrating. It’s been going on for almost eight years now. After some time you kind of figure out little minimal ways to help improve stuff, but nothing long term which is why CORE Therapy has really helped me a lot. The team at CORE is focused in on all my pain and it’s taken something that was pretty life-altering and hurt with everything I did to now, I can manage it…
What did you miss out on before coming to CORE?
I was a big sports player, I loved playing tennis, I played field hockey, I loved going on runs and so that was a huge kind of change for me once I started realizing how bad my pain actually was. I had to kind of change all of my activities in life, I couldn’t travel as much as I had liked. Just sitting on a plane for even an hour would really hurt, so I don’t know, it was mostly a fear of things that I was once comfortable doing that I was now uncertain if I could even do again…
What else did you try before coming to see us?
Because I was so young when I started feeling the pain, I didn’t really know where or what to do to find help and pain management. I tried a bunch of different things, I tried stretching, yoga, I tried acupuncture, all of which helped, but not long-term enough. Because I was so young I was constantly moving around and doing different things with my life so I wasn’t really in a spot where I could try something for a long enough period to see if it would help and so those were some of the things that I definitely did try…
What did you know about Physical Therapy before coming to CORE?
I knew absolutely nothing about physical therapy before I came to CORE Therapy… I mean, I knew that someone would help train parts of my body and make something stronger or you know help alleviate pain but that was quite literally all I knew about therapy…
What would you say to someone in pain that is skeptical about PT?
Stop being in pain and just try it out already… because it is so amazing when you figure out what’s actually going on in your body and how everything ties in together. You learn how you could have one muscle on the bottom left part of your leg that’s been tight that’s also affecting your shoulder up on the complete opposite side. You really don’t understand your body until you’ve been to therapy because it’s powerful…
What did you enjoy most about coming to PT at CORE?
Everyone here is awesome, everyone here is so nice and they really help you understand what’s going on and they’re not just telling you to go work on this machine, but to work on this machine when you know you have no idea what that even means or what you’re gonna be helping. Everyone is just incredibly helpful and so nice about it and they realize that you are in pain. Most people here have also been through their own pain themselves so it’s been more of a personal experience for them that they can bring on to everyone who they help…
What was your goal? Did we help you achieve it?
My goal was just to be pain-free and to be able to live my life again where I didn’t have to always worry about if this one car ride was gonna hurt my back for the next two weeks, or if this walk that I would go an extra thirty minutes would hurt while I slept. So that was really my biggest biggest goal and I would say that after I’ve been here for a couple months now I can definitely say with confidence that I’m getting to the point where I am pain-free… you know it’s baby steps but I’m getting there…
Call 512-215-4227 to start the conversation about your back pain… If you are willing to tell us your story, We Will LISTEN!