Report from rehab - III : Ane the angel

You might have noticed that my current physiotherapist is the only one I have mentioned by name among all the different therapists I have tried. Ane Falck is her full name and she is simply amazing. She never stops surprising me. The treatment evolves all the time with new ingredients being added, and this is something I have not experienced with the other therapists. I want to emphasize that all other therapists I wrote about were highly recommended by people who are extremely happy about them, but they each specialized in one type of treatment. Normal massage, deep tissue massage, acupuncture, and intramuscular needles. I also tried chiropractic twice, so in total five therapists with each their five different specialties. It turns out that Ane specializes in all of these five treatment methods! In addition to ultrasound examinations and ultrasound assisted injections...

I did not think that I would write more about rehab until perhaps later to report on my healing, because I thought there would be not much to report about. I would simply be doing my exercises until I got better.  To my surprise, about a month ago Ane said "OK, now it's time to start treatment". Treatment? I thought HSR was the treatment. I was quite curious when I went to my next appointment with her, and it was above all expectations. She gave me intramuscular needles, deep tissue massage and chiropractics in one single session! I had been transferred to Ane from my previous therapist who is also at the same center as her, to have the injured area examined with ultrasound. So I thought ultrasound was her specialization. Then we started the rehab exercises, and as I wrote before, I am extremely happy with the way Ane is following up on my progress. Although we don't have an appointment, she very often finds me in the exercise room, corrects my posture, suggests advancements in the exercises, and simply genuinely cares. To be honest, I did not think that there was more. The fact that we have now muscular treatment in addition to the HSR training is such a nice surprise, and it gives me even more motivation to conscientiously and rigorously continue with the exercises. 

Another thing that impresses me about Ane is that not only she knows so much about so many things, but she is also interested in teaching me! She shows me pictures from books and explains how the muscles, joints or the tissue around them work, what out treatment is trying to achieve, why it works, etc etc. She also gives me links so that I can read more about both the injury and the treatment methods myself. This is, in my experience, quite non-typical of therapists. She is not only treating my current injury, but she also gives me exercises so that I can stay injury free in the future, and she gives me lots of examples from her own experiences. Ane is around my age, she is a very physically active person herself, and I have the feeling that she understands me completely. She is so compassionate and empathetic, and I have never experienced this, at least to this extent, with the previous therapists. During my last session with her before the holidays, she said "Our goals is to get you back at running, as a stronger and better runner than you were before". Wow: our goal, and better than before! I almost got tears in my eyes...

I experienced the ultimate proof of the level of her empathy when I was worried about some shoulder pain just a few days before the holidays. Ane knew that I was counting on swimming a lot during the holidays, so although she understood from my description that it was probably nothing, she gave me an appointment just the next day. I got a thorough examination of the shoulder, which was by that time already quite a lot better, and I was impressed how she was able to take it so seriously when she already knew that it would simply pass in a few days. She explained to me later that it is also important to stop the mental processes around pain and injury. In the end, pain is simply signals that our brain is producing, and sometimes it can produce these signals even when there is no physical reason. This is why many people struggle with chronic inexplicable pain. I learn so much from her...

On top of all these things, we discovered that Ane and my trainer Ketil are friends from way back! What a team! I have the pleasure of working with two of the people who are the most excellent in their work, who are among the few that understand me completely and take all my worries seriously, and whom I have become extremely fond of. My hope is to continue my collaboration with Ketil and Ane until we all retire :-) With this kind of a support team, I believe nothing can stand in my way to become and stay fast and injury free!

I am afraid too many of us hang on to therapies and therapists long after we have lost faith in them. If a treatment is not working for you, and you do not get an explanation that you are satisfied with, it might be worthwhile to look into alternatives. Do not hesitate to discuss it with your current therapist, and ask him or her to suggest alternative treatments. And when you finally find somebody whom you are 100% satisfied with, trust their methods and follow their instructions to the letter to get the results that you deserve.

Don't ever let go of people who enhance your life!