I’m Emily, a 23 year old born and raised in Montreal, Canada. I’ve since moved to the United States, where my husband is from. We live in New Orleans, Louisiana, where I work as a baker for one of the oldest restaurants in the city. Working as a baker means hours of being on my feet, from getting the ingredients to whipping up the batter to putting it in the oven. I’m grateful that my legs and ankles are strong enough for the job, considering that a few years ago I sprained my ankle so badly I couldn’t even walk. I didn’t know what osteopathy was not did I know it was going to help me recover from my torn ligament.
In my last year of high school, we started a new sport in gym class: we were going to be playing volleyball. During the first exercise where we were supposed to practice jumping and hitting the ball, I landed awkwardly and my ankle went fully sideways. It hurt so bad that I swore in front of my gym teacher. It was the most physical pain I’d experienced in my life so far. I got out of class to go to the school nurse, who wrapped my ankle in gauze to steady it, gave me crutches and excused me from my classes that day. I spent the evening lying in bed with my foot propped up on a cushion recovering. The next day I went back to school with my crutches. I couldn’t put any weight on my right leg without piercing pain in my ankle.
For the next few days, my family and I focused on home remedies for sprained ankles, based on the nurse’s instructions. I put ice on it, and kept it elevated when I sat down. We realized that it wasn’t an average sprain that would heal itself without professional help. I went to my pediatrician at the time for advice. He examined it and told me that the ligament had not only been stretched, as in a milder sprain, but had fully torn. I would need physical therapy so the ligament could repair itself to a usable condition. My downstairs neighbor had been seeing an osteopath for a physical issue and recommended us to her practitioner. Luckily, he was located just a few blocks away from where we lived.
My mother and I went in for an initial consultation and decided to try it out. He gave me an estimate of how many sessions it would take, but said he would treat the sprain as long as it needed. I had appointments once a week and would go after school. During our sessions, he would work on my ankle to get it back into proper position. What surprised me is that he not only focused on my ankle but also worked on different parts of my body that had been impacted by the sprain. I had been putting all my weight on my left leg, so he evened out my back and hips. He also strengthened the muscle groups of my right leg that were directly connected to my ankle. I was personally pretty amazed the angle osteopathy brought to heal my torn ligament.
His explanations were very informative about how my muscles work and how the body finds balance in its systems. Often it felt like a massage, which I loved. Sometimes I would drift off or even fall asleep, because the technique itself was so relaxing. After a couple of months, he evaluated that my ankle was strong enough to be at its full capacity again. He gave me some exercises to do at home to strengthen it in its recovery. Unfortunately, with a bad sprain the ligament stretched permanently, leaving it vulnerable to future injury even after healing. However my ankle hasn’t given me any problems since.
In the years after, I’ve spoken to a few osteopaths in casual social settings. We’ve discussed the variety of issues that osteopathy can be helpful in, including emotional and mental imbalances. They told me that chiropractic therapy can require weekly visits indefinitely as it doesn’t address the issue in a long term way like osteopathy does. Supposedly, osteopathy can help cure physical issues, like my torn ligament, by addressing the body as a whole rather than simply the injured area.
I have no personal experience with chiropractors so I cannot confirm or deny this statement. I just thought it was an interesting perspective on different forms of treatment. When my father developed severe shoulder pain, he tried many techniques. In the end, he found that an osteopath was able to finally get rid of the pain for good. For these reasons, if you’re in physical pain or have injuries, like a torn ligament, I would recommend osteopathy. Different things work for different people, so it’s important to find what works for you and your body!
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