As I was sitting on my own treatment table poking a needle into my foot last week, I was painfully reminded of the consequences of not taking my own advice.
“Ankle sprains are one of the most commonly under treated injuries.”
This is the line that I would give to people at parties when they told me that they sprained their ankle last week playing rec league basketball.
I would go on to say:
“The pain related to an ankle sprain often resolves with time, but the mechanics of your ankle often don’t go back to normal without help. This can cause other problems outside of the ankle down the line.”
I shook my head at the irony of my current predicament.
5 years ago, I sprained my ankle playing rec league soccer. It was a bit of an awkward sprain, but it “recovered” within a few weeks. I did no rehab for it.
And now the chickens have come home to roost, such that I can’t progress my running without getting pain in my foot. Just as I would predict to so many before me, the injury that I’m dealing with isn’t in my ankle, it’s in my foot.
But why is it in my foot? Because of my ankle. facepalm
So back to me, poking and prodding my foot with needles hoping that it would ease my pain (sounds counterintuitive, but if you’ve had dry needling you know that sometimes it surprises you). But this time, dry needling couldn’t solve my problems.
It was time to get some help.
How a PT navigates injury rehab
The last time I went to an orthopedic PA for an assessment and some x-rays, it cost me $300 for information that didn’t really help me. If I thought I had broken a bone or needed surgery on something, then maybe I’d go see a doctor first. Otherwise, I’m cutting out the middle man and going straight to PT.
Here’s the thing. Alterra is out of network. There are a lot of reasons why I think out of network care is better for the patient, but I actually don’t think all in-network PT is bad. The reason that I decided to get out-of-network PT for myself is this:
In-network physical therapy has poor brand integrity.
Brand integrity is consistency in what customers experience when they consume that product or service.
For example, Doritos have great brand integrity. A bag of Doritos in Boston tastes exactly the same as a bag of Doritos in Indianapolis, even years later as long as they don’t change the recipe.
In contrast, the same person could have two WILDLY (seriously… wildly) different experiences with in-network physical therapy depending on who they see, where they are geographically, and what their insurance covers.
In my experience, out-of-network physical therapy has better brand integrity than in-network physical therapy. It’s a little easier to know what quality service and what level of expertise to expect. Here are some examples:
More likely to be able to get an appointment within 7 days of inquiring
More likely to work with someone who specializes in your specific problem
Significantly more likely to have the same quality treatment every session since each session is typically 45-60 min with the same clinician (this doesn’t happen in in-network PT)
More likely to have transparent pricing
For me, I wanted to get to the right answer as quickly as possible without having to jump through the “medical system” hoops, and I wanted to know that the time and money that I was spending on this treatment was spent on the best quality service.
So I found a practitioner who cares just as much about running and providing a high quality experience as I do and booked my first session.
Final Thoughts
I tend to learn the strongest lessons from my mistakes, and not getting PT after spraining my ankle was a mistake.
Luckily, there are physical therapists out there who are dedicating their careers to becoming experts in their field, and finding better ways to deliver their expertise to their patients than the tired traditional ways.
At Alterra, we specialize in helping runners get to the root cause of their injuries so that they can stay on track with their training and enjoy running without pain. If you're a local runner in Boston's Back Bay and are recovering from an ankle sprain, learn from my mistake! We'd love to help. Book a free discovery call to chat with a therapist today.
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