Case Study: How a woman who could barely walk due to knee pain went dancing

Happy New Year! We hope it brings all of you good health, good cheer, and happiness.

Well once again another year has begun, and for this year here at BelvidereChiropractic.com we’ve decided to focus on a special type of category of posts called case studies.

This is a chance for us to share with you and our thousands of other loyal readers so that you can better understand and see exactly what it is we do here and why.

These are actual cases of patients here at Belvidere Chiropractic Center that we’ve had the honor and pleasure to help regain their health throughout the past 12 years of private practice. However, in order to protect their privacy and comply with the current federal HIPAA laws, their names will not be given.

This first case study in this ongoing series is an 88 year-old women who hobbled into the office using a walker, in her consultation I noticed she was sitting slouched over as if the world where on her shoulders pushing her down. After introducing myself to her, I asked, “What can we do to help?” and her reply was, “You have to help me I’m in so much pain I can barely walk”.
When I inquired where her pain was she reported it was in her left knee and that it went down the front of her shin and into the top of the foot.
She then told me she’d been to an orthopedist who put her on pain medication and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, had 6 months of physical therapy and several cortisone shots in her knee all with no lasting results and that the pain just continued to get worse and worse.
I then got up and checked her lower back (just to see if she even might be a chiropractic case or not) and she had such severe tenderness that when I touched the area she almost jumped out of her chair. After completing her case history I then examined her and took some initial x-rays of her lower back which you can see below:

As you can see from the picture on your left (which is the view of her lower back from the front) that she has a scoliosis measuring 16 degrees and from the picture on your right (which is the view of her lower back from the side) that she also has an increased in the normal curvature (red line), a previous healed compression fracture (from osteoporosis) of the first lumbar, and severe loss of disc heights and spur formation indicating disc degeneration that had gone on for several decades unchecked and as a consequence has continually gotten progressively worse. Which was causing pressure on the nerves going down to her knee and into the top of her foot.
Once I found out what was causing the problem, what kind of condition her spine was in, and after performing a few necessary orthopedic and neurological tests (to rule anything else out), I then performed a successful test adjustment (obviously using a safe and very gentile technique) to find out if we could even start correcting the cause of the problem. I was then sure we could help her and put her on a treatment plan which included a set schedule of chiropractic adjustments as well as certain restrictions on acts of daily living (sitting, standing, sleeping, bending, lifting, etc.) and the home use of therapeutic ice at specific time intervals to control the inflammation (instead of potential dangerous and more expensive oral anti-inflammatories).
After treating her 3 times a week for 4 weeks we stopped and took another look and some progress films (to see what and if anything had changed). Which you can see below to the right next to her initial films for comparison.

As you can see, the scoliosis came down to 7 degrees a 56% improvement! As well as an improvement in the side curve toward normal (red line). The pain in her left knee and down the front of her leg into the top of her foot was significantly reduced and she no longer required the walker but switched to using a cane just for some support.
We continued her treatment as planned 2 times a week for 6 more weeks and re-examined her at which point she reported was even better had very little pain and was walking now without the cane.
We then gave her a few specific stretches and exercises to do at home and continued to see her as planned once a week for 6 more weeks to keep her spine in alignment while she stabilized it.
Following those 6 weeks she was re-examined and we took more x-rays (to see if we accomplished what we needed to and what the consideration was for her in the future). Which you can see below to the right next to her initial ones again for a comparison.

As you can see, the scoliosis came down even further to 1 degree a 94% overall improvement as well as the side curve improved further toward normal (red line) and she even had a slight increase in the heights of the deteriorated discs. Now she’s is far from perfect (because of how much damage over decades of neglect and lack of proper chiropractic care) however, she reported that her pain is now completely gone and she is not only walking without any assistance she even reported to me that she and her husband went dancing for the first time in over twenty years!