In February 2014, my daughter Juliana tore her meniscus during gymnastics practice. Before this injury she was an "all around" state champion in the state of Connecticut. Juliana had worked hard to move to a more advanced level, so this injury was the most devastating thing that could have happened to her right before state championships. Juliana had surgery which resulted in the doctor taking out some of her meniscus as sewing it wasn't an option. She went through physical therapy for 6 weeks got released and told her she was ready to go back but not to do anything crazy. Okay, so define crazy for a gymnast? Two months later an MRI revealed that she torn the meniscus again and that they needed to go back in and take more out. I decided to go for a second opinion and that doctor stated under no circumstances can more meniscus be taken out as she was only 13 years old and the future issues would be huge problem. It has to be sewed with a six week recovery that consisted of a brace & no weight bearing at all. Okay, so we all agreed with this surgeon for various reasons, so the surgery we done and after the six week recovery she want back to physical therapy. This time she started to complain about her knee cracking, popping and felt like something was catching when she was walking, plus the knee was a mess it was inflamed which they couldn't get down and she was frustrated as well as myself. Four months later the doctor decided to do exploratory surgery to see what was going on and the only thing he saw were stitches hanging down that the he took out however reported that the sewed meniscus repaired very well. Okay, so that was good news.
During this process I want to mention two things. 1) Juliana was told that she could never go back to gymnastics at all, as the pounding on the knee is what caused the injury. 2) She was also diagnosed with scoliosis that wasn't that serious as she has almost stopped growing so a brace wasn't needed. As a matter of fact the scoliosis doctor told us her knee was more of an issue not her back and to come back in 6 months for another x-ray to see if she finished growing.
She goes back to physical therapy which wasn't working, and then I got a letter from the insurance company stating that they will no longer pay for physical therapy as they feel it was no longer medically necessary. Great, now what do I do? Well this decision was the best decision that I ever made, as a matter of fact my husband wasn't even on the same page with me however my family and my in-laws were as they felt I needed to try it. So, I ignored my husband and hired Christian the owner of FIGHT4FIT and he got the job done. That's right the job that one else was able to do. He got her inflammation gone, strengthened her knee, got her out of depression, talked to her as a person about school, friends, motivated her to go back to any sport, even told her his sports injury that stopped him from playing basketball and there she went down the path of confidence & determination. He never promised her that she would be able to go back to gymnastics but said it might be possible. During this time I kept postposing her orthopedic follow up visit so when we finally went he was so happy to see her in great spirits and the knee was doing great and agreed that she can try to go back to gymnastics, but warned her that any slight issue with pain are problem she must stop immediately and see him. Juliana was so excited and agreed.
At this point Juliana's training with Christian was almost over as we hit the six month mark and Christian was ready to release her, but while we were getting ready to end with him it was time for Juliana to go back to the scoliosis doctor, so we went to our appointment in hopes he would tell us that she has stopped growing or her back which actually has an 'S' curve hasn't changed. Well something we never expected happened and actually shocked the doctor. Juliana's back reversed six degrees on the bottom and two degrees on the top in the correct direction. The doctor had asked us what she was doing and we explained training with Christian for her knee. His reply was, whatever you are doing continue as have never seen in my careers patient's scoliosis reverse in the correct direction without doing the "Schroth Method', which is designed for scoliosis patients.
When we saw Christian next we showed him the before & after x-rays and after year of doctors saying she got hurt during gymnastics which is true but the core of the problem Christian figured out. The scoliosis pushed Juliana's hip out and that in turn went to her knee. Yes, she got hurt by tumbling but it was her hip from the scoliosis that was the core of the problem. No wonder she kept complaining about her hip and the doctor & physical therapist kept saying it was from the knee. Not only were we excited that he figured it out, but we all agreed she should try and go back to gymnastics as a trial to see if her knee could take it.
We are extremely grateful to Christian for all he did. Juliana was able to go back to a sport that she truly loves and even though it wasn't easy as we had to travel 3 times a week for anywhere from 30-45 depending on traffic each way it was worth all our time and effort. I highly recommend Christian, if it wasn't for him. I'm sure Juliana would still be dealing with a knee issue.
-Laura A. McCory