My client had knee pain for years. It had all started after an injury during a hockey game in his early teens. He went for imaging but there didn’t seem to be any damage to his knee other than a bruise. Once his knee had healed from the bruise. He was told he was good to start hockey again.
But he still felt like something was wrong.
Whenever he went on the ice, his knee would start bothering him again. He never had the same power he had before. His skating didn’t feel the same as it did before.
He felt frustrated that even after mentioning his pain to the Doctor, they still couldn’t find anything wrong with his knee.
The pain in his knee changed how he felt about hockey. His skills had stopped improving since the pain would slow him down. He had to move on from the sport.
It wasn’t until years later that I had met with him for a hip issue that we spoke about his knee pain. While it hadn’t bothered him as much since stopping hockey, he felt the pain often.
He was just used to the pain now.
The Doctor was right, there was nothing wrong with his ligaments and bones but his hamstring muscle was affected. As our sessions passed by, he started to realize that he no longer had pain in his knee.
It felt freeing.
While he couldn’t go to the past and play hockey again. He could be pain free and know that he was not imagining his pain.
While the story may not be the same for everyone, I have met some that continued their sport with pain. While others have been forced to stop. Chronic pain affects every aspect of your life, and unfortunately you end up dealing with it.
Have you been affected by chronic pain? What has it changed for you?
L.