On July 4th, 1803, the United States paid approximately $15 million dollars for over 800,000 square miles of land. This land deal was arguably the greatest achievement of Thomas Jefferson’s presidency. In May, 1804, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to set out on an amazing expedition across the Louisiana Territory. These two brave men faced harsh conditions, unexplored lands and some hostile people.
On June 27th, 2010 The Doepper Family set out on a similar course. We faced some of the same unexplored lands, harsh conditions, and hostile people. If you have traveled by Amtrak, you know what I mean.
As many of you know I took the family out west by way of Chicago, through Wisconsin, Minnesota, and on to the Black Hills of South Dakato on our way to see our very own Mike Gerometta and Sarah Berger tie the knot! I wanted to share my experience with you along the way. We will visit the Black Hills of South Dakota, Mount Rushmore, the beautiful Badlands, and some unexpected stops along the way. We will wind up in Sioux City Iowa to share in the Big Day with Mike and Sarah. See picture of our Amtrak adventure, stay tuned for our visit to the Black Hills and Harneys Peak tomorrow where you will meet a real Giant!

Well Traveled Girl!

All Aboard!
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The days are warmer and the birds are back. It is actually light when I get home from work. What does this mean? For me it means running season. The 5ks, 10ks, and marathons are all scheduled.
Don’t let the possibilities of running injuries stop you from all the fun! Here are the 5 most common runners injuries AKA *The Big 5* to watch for:
The common denominator is inflammation. Commonly Doctors are quite familiar with this pattern and treat the inflammation through rest, immobilization and NSAIDs ( non-steroidal anti-inflammatories). If this does not work many times they do use cortisone through injections.
Why is this not enough?
That is because every condition that was described above is simply an explanation of the symptoms. They are all describing the result of injury and the course of treatment only addressed the symptoms. Little or no attention was put into the “cause” of the problem.
If the doctor or patient are pro-active they may seek out physical therapy. A successful plan of therapy will address the actual cause of the symptoms not just the resultant symptoms.
I would like to answer this question with a case history. I was treating an ultra-marathoner who was preparing for his 10th 50 mile race. It was a big deal for him as 10 is a *big* milestone (understandably, not too many people have run 50 miles, no less have done it 10 times!).
The ultra-marathoner had a bad case of plantar fascitis. In an attempt to attain his goal, he ventured down a quest to find the cure for his condition. His quest started at numerous sports medicine doctors, months of physical therapy at 2 different locations and treatment by his chiropractor. Each one addressed a different aspect of his condition.
Here is how it went:
Still determined, this patient decided to continue his search. He researched on the Internet and found a technique call Graston. That is what lead him to our clinic. Graston is a very effective soft tissue technique that utilizes stainless steel instruments to break up the scar tissue and adhesions that build up with injuries such as this. He was sure this would cure him so he came in looking for the miracle pill and he was sure this was it.
On evaluation day, we informed him there is no miracle pill. Graston is fantastic but it is not your solution. Actually, it is not the only solution. The truth is everything he did along the way was correct. He needed manipulation of his SI joint as the restrictions in his low back were creating an abnormal gait, just as his chiropractor said. He also needed the orthotics. He was ovepronating and it was causing extreme stress on his fascia (this is why every time he went back to running the pain returned).
“Well the orthotics made it worse,” the ultra-marathoner shared. That is because of the adhesions and scar tissue that has built up over time. This is where the Graston will come in. It also needs to be applied to the calf, quad and low back as there are many muscular imbalances either as a result of this journey or one of the original causes.
We made all the corrections and treated him up to the race. We are happy to report the ultra-marathoner finished the 50 miles virtually pain free!
The moral of this ultra-marathoner’s story is two-fold:
This is why we have a multi-discipline clinic that combines the benefits of chiropractic, physical therapy, strength and conditioning for any injury. For additional information on Plantar Fascitis or the lower Kinetic Chain, view our article entitled Plantar Fascitis & Other Lower Leg Injuries or email us with any questions or comments.
We are just thrilled to welcome our new Physical Therapist, John Hunt, to our staff here at Capitol Rehab of Winchester! No one could be more pleased than Dr. Doepper who’s very excited to having John come aboard starting March 2, 2010.
“John’s approach is to treat the person as a whole and not simply treat the symptoms,” says Dr. Doepper, who is Director and founder of Capitol Rehab of Winchester. “He enjoys the challenges of observing impaired movement patterns that patients present with and developing an individualized comprehensive treatment plan with the goal of restoring optimal functional ability for each patient.”
To learn more about John’s imminent arrival to our practice and his very extensive background as a physical therapist and physical therapy instructor at Shenandoah University, please click here.
We look forward to having John here on March 2! Please join us in welcoming him to our Capitol Rehab of Winchester family!