Getting hurt while playing any sport can be scary, frustruation, or confusing. In the modern medicine world where we are surrounded by high science technology, you are either experiecing that it is hard to get consistent message on what is best for your sport injury. You might have high strict medical care standards as you have only one body to take care of.
The common expression is that you want to get back to playing sooner at no risk of making it worse. Part of this equation is getting clear answer of what you are dealing with. As a leading Sports Medicine Doctor of Physical Therapy in Long Beach, our pride is to keep everyone active and mobile as natural as possible. All people who come to see us or other Sports Medicine provider in Long Beach do not realize that for true healing, the research consistently is coming to agreement that a mind body approach gives athletes and weekend warriors the best odds of recovery.
We have seen a wide range of injuries,
Time spent getting to know you and not a diagnosis.
Did you know that having shoulder arthroscopy, back, and meniscus surgery has the same odds of success as not having surgery? It makes sense that if you tear the Anterior Cruciate Ligament of your knee (ACL), there is only one solution. The solution is to make sure that the ligament mends and heal together. Many do not realize that there was controversy up still on when and how you should rehab from an ACL surgery!
When should you start using moving your ACL? Should you use a knee brace to protect your knee? Which is the better choice for surgery, cadaver ACL or your own tissue? If your own, should it come from your hamstring, patella, posterior tibialis or other tendons?
When it comes to a “simple” disc surgery, there are numerous questions that need to come into factor. How much of the disc should be left intact for restorative self-healing? YES, the surgeon leaves some of your disc tissues during surgery because your spine can self-heal. Bet your doctor did not tell you that and this is one reason why we know you have a high chance of getting better without surgery.
As a simple idea to fix what is broken is not as simple. The reason for this is that you are unique. This is why we absolutely love our job and dance to work every day. We use a car analogy often. Why can some drivers keep the same 1995 Honda Civic car spotless and running well while others cannot? If it is a simple brake pad squeaking that is fixed, why do some brake pads wear out in 3 months as oppose to 2 years after being replaced?
The answer is the habits and your ownership of your body. Yes, genetics may play a small role in this decision, but it is much smaller than you think. We are talking about 1% in our decision in knowing who can do great with us. What factor more is your beliefs and your attitude.
Think about this. If you have to pick between an “I CAN” athlete with an average baseball arm or a “I CAN NOT” athlete with an above average baseball arm, which would you bet would do best? The “I CAN” athlete! The same goes for getting better from an injury.
FYI… we are an “I CAN” Sports Medicine Expert representing Long Beach every day, all day. Challenge us with your diagnosis.
We have seen 1000’s of simple to complex Sports Medicine injuries that we are that confident we can navigate your diagnosis. The only caveat is that you are willing to earn your expectation and be a student of learning how to own your body.
How they handle adversity or when things do not go “right”.
This is an important factor to consider that many do not think about when they are in the mist of feeling pain. There is no Medical Doctors, Sports Medicine Physical Therapist, Chiropractors, Acupuncturist, or “experts” that can execute at a 100% perfect score. However, as a consumer, we need this confidence to make a decision for our own body or care for our loved ones.
When you think about medical stories with a happy ending, there is one common saying that you will hope to hear a surgeon say. As he comes out to greet a worried spouse that has waited a minute longer than the guestimated surgery time, you are reassured with a “that surgery went well. We realize that there were some things that we did not expect (today), but we understand how to handle these situations and took care of it.”
How do we handle when we do not get the “fast” result that modern consumers expect? First, we make sure we help people understand that pain is a reminder to slow down and reflect. Our simple system is based on the idea that if we address a tension point with in your muscles, joints, ligament, tendon or nerves, the result should carry over to the next session. Makes sense right? If we do not get the lasting result, there is always a good reason why. Find it and address the source of what is holding the body from healing. Read our article “When is an Expert not an Expert” to understand what many other practitioners miss if they chase muscle or joint pain only.
Philosophy matches yours.
If you have a shoulder injury and your motto is to push through pain in order to get better, you would work with a Physical Therapist that mashes and smashes your shoulder muscles and tissues forcefully. If you ended up with a Physical Therapist that believes in light muscle work, you will end up feeling like you are not progressing.
If you have a belief that your left knee is the problem since it is the part that is hurting, and we only should work on the left knee. You might be disappointed if you are managed by a Holistic Physical Therapist like us. We have a motto that holds true to our core belief. Our body works together, heals together. Our brain loses the ability to tell right versus left after an injury in some people. We might work 80% of our time at the leg (heck we might add the shoulder) that does not hurt in order to get your injured leg better.
We have seen too many Sports Medicine Injury since 2004 to realize that the human is a simple design. We believe you can get better, regardless of age, diagnosis, or genetic conditions like arthritis. If you would like a FREE phone conversation with Dr Danh Ngo before making any commitment to understanding how we can help you, click on the GREEN button to save your special time with us. Spots are LIMITED as we only work with 15 serious clients per week.
Credentials
Post-graduate learning and education improvement are important in any field. There is a sense of humbleness and acknowledgment to oneself when a professional becomes a specialist in their field. I desired to become only one is less than 0.1% of Physical Therapist in the country as a Board-Certified Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Specialist because I wanted to prove to myself that I was knowledgeable in my chosen specialty.
Workload
There is a book called WHEN by Daniel Pink that probes at the question of when is the best time to have surgery. The answer is early within the surgery day.
The burnout of an Orthopedic Physical Therapist is 5 years. Did you know it is common for many Insurance-dictated Physical Therapy in Long Beach to see an average of 90-140 people per week.
That is exhausting and mentally challenging. We used to work in this setting and reflect back at how we did that well. You just cannot.
We see 15 people per week. The reason why is because we focus on community and family as a priority. Fulfillment, success, and happiness are defined by us as being balanced. We are focused on you with a clear and purposeful intention that you will get better.
Familiarity
The idea that the more practice you get, the better you will become at dealing with something. Familiarity goes with the earlier factor of adaptability when dealing with a Sports Medicine Injury. Along with being familiar as a Sports Medicine Physical Therapist, we have worked side-by-side with the athlete on the field to closely communicating with Sports Orthopedic Surgeons, we have appreciated the value it can bring to you.
Comprehensive
Precision and setting up an accurate solution-based plan for the best successful outcome is determined by taking the time to be comprehensive. Delay in care is inevitable as mentioned above, but we reduce our chances by focusing on being comprehensive from the beginning. Our goal is to understand how all of your joints and muscles are working well or not well with each other.
The purpose of our assessment is to answer to why you are hurt and build a plan where you understand how to get the best chance of reducing this risk. Our focus is on lasting relief and not the quick fix. Yes, it is sexy to stand out as the quick fix, but it does you no good if it comes back in a month or so. At least we hope you agree. =)
Holistic
One might think holistic as being the same as comprehensive. This may be true if your only understand of an injury as being local to that particular region or joint. An example is a comprehensive knee injury examination as looking at all tissues at the knee such as the Anterior Cruciate Ligament, Lateral Collateral Ligament, Medial and Lateral Meniscus, Popliteal Muscle, Functional Strength Ratio of the Quadriceps to Hamstrings, and many other knee jargon.
A holistic Sports Medicine Physical Therapy assessment would determine the structure and functionality of the knee, but incorporate how the spine, neck, digestive system, hormonal balance, and brain to body communication. We would look at how well you are recovering and assess stress and mental roadblocks that come with having a Sports Injury.
Tiger Woods would definitely agree that mind plays a huge role in recovering as he has spiraled downhill after suffering from an ACL injury. The situation was worse with his publicity disaster. This led to a back injury and he has never looked or played the same. If the master cannot avoid it with the best intention, you need a fighter by your side to give you the best chance of healing.
We have our own opinion of what Tiger Woods rehabilitation is missing since it was not looked through a holistic Sports Medicine perspective. Curious? Just ask us =)
We have seen too many Sports Medicine Injury since 2004 to realize that the human is a simple design. We believe you can get better, regardless of age, diagnosis, or genetic conditions like arthritis. If you would like a FREE phone conversation with Dr Danh Ngo before making any commitment to understanding how we can help you, click on the GREEN button to save your special time with us. Spots are LIMITED as we only work with 15 serious clients per week.
Looking forward to helping you,
Dr Danh Ngo
Board Certified Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Specialist
Holistic Doctor of Physical Therapy
Mind Body Health Results Coach
ReVITALize Rehab Club