I finally was getting married (end of December last year – almost a month ago – wow). I went to bed beginning to feel excited about the next day, 3 months of planning had come together, family had arrived from Australia and we had celebrated Christmas together for the first time in 6 years. More family and friends had tackled the M25, M3 & A303 and were safely ensconced in their beds. Tomorrow after 15 years together Andy and the kids were going to make an honest woman of me.

Pain, Pain and More Pain

Snuggling down in the single put you up bed at mum’s house with my daughter in the bed next to me, I wriggled around using my foot to pull the duvet over me, when thanks to mild hypermobility in my ankle & a generally dyfunctional knee I managed to displace the head of the thin bone on the outside of my lower leg – my fibula.

Unwilling to wake anyone up and unable to weight bear (to get to the pain meds) I had a sleepless night. Finally at 6am I hopped downstairs, with my daughter, Katie (excited about the day ahead) close behind me.

Not sure quite how I was going to manage walking down the aisle, let alone in high heels, Katie was dispatched to raid the medicine cabinet for anti inflammatories and pain killers, and to the freezer for the frozen peas. Having allowed the pain meds to kick in, I decided to let Katie try and help get things moving back in the right direction. Thankfully she has seen plenty of treatment on friends and family and has over time had the experience of both maintenance and emergency treatment. She understood what I was asking her to do.

The student becomes the osteopath

We massaged my leg to try and ease the muscle spasm, and tried to get the fibula head moving through mobilisation techniques and gentle exercises, however it wasn’t playing ball and Katie had to bravely perform a leg tug (not an easy job when you are 11 and Mum has a heavy leg and is in pain).

The resulting clunk as the fibula head rotated within its ligamentous ring back into the correct position was welcomed with a loud cheer, lots of hugs (and tears of relief), the pain immediately reduced, I was able to weight bear again and within an hour I was able to put my heels on. Osteopathy had worked to get me back on my feet.

#Osteopathyworks

I did make it down the aisle in the heels, although once at the reception I popped on my high tops to ensure I could manage the first dance without any further injuries, and during our mini honeymoon I climbed Glastonbury Tor, and headed out onto the hills overlooking the Glastonbury Festival site for a long walk with Andy (my husband) and Halo (our dog) . 

I look forward to the day that Katie qualifies – although she insists she will be a veterinary osteopath. She will have to complete a rigorous human osteopathy course first though and then go on to complete the animal osteopathic skills after, so hopefully she will continue to help out when needed.