Not Bad for a 100 Bucks!
We martial artists are not very good as patients and can get quite impatient when it comes to injuries. So I thought I might go and see the sports doctor specialist, who I had been consulting for my back. Although my back seems to be fine the root cause of it is still pestering me when I do my training. I told him about this pain on my hip flexor but he could not locate the cause of the problem, although I told him it was the tendon of the hip flexor (Dr Chris found it). He came up with a non specific answer and told me to be patient and respect pain. ‘Are you kidding, I thought. You don’t need to tell me that, we’re in the business of pain’. I just wanted him to jab a needle into my leg with a bit of cortisone and be done with it.
The doctor told me to squat and toe-touch to see if there was any pain; no good! He ran me through some other tests to see if he can induce the pain but nothing happened. So I did some of my own, by getting down on my knees and into the hurdler's stretch and then into the inner thigh stretch, the kind of thing we martial artists normally do but I couldn't get the thing to 'ouch' me either. His eyes lit up in amazement and told me what I was doing are well beyond a normal person can do. He could not believe, it was possible with my old injuries and recent back injury (that's because he is not a martial artist).
Dr Chris and I concur it takes a martial artist to know a martial artist. It’s the way a martial artist thinks and Chris is no exception to this rule. A few months ago with the back injury, no doctor could find the cause of the back pain even with CT scans but Chris picked up on it immediately (without scans) whilst I was on the mats. It must be a martial arts thing.
Dr Chris has done it again when he pin pointed the recurring pain on my hip flexor in a matter of a minute whilst my specialist struggled to give me an answer (not trying to take anything away from the doctor because he is one of the best around). The doctor said, 'no needle for you'. Anyway, Chris has found a way to treat the problem. It takes about 2 minutes. I have had two sessions so far and the pain seems to be improving significantly. Then Chris can really concentrate to improve my BJJ game. Beware wishful thinkers.
What does this tell us? Martial artists are different! I didn’t get the needle but I did get a few compliments. Not bad for a 100 bucks!
GA