During the uncertain times of the nCovid-19 pandemic, we are looking into ways to continue to help our patients. From the start of April, we will be offering online appointments via video chat for sports injuries and foot pain related problems.
Our new process will integrate our current clinic software with a new app that you can access from a variety of devices. The simplicity of
the fully integrated system means that even if you aren't able to make it to the clinic for an appointment we are still able to give you
access to help.
For your peace of mind we thought we would give you a little insight into how the appointment would go. We frequently deal with all sorts of problems in the clinic but sports injuries and foot pain generally require a great deal of thought and reasoning to examine the source of your pain. A thorough narrative of the injury is therefore important in getting to the heart of the matter. After a brief introduction, confirming your details and a background medical history, we will let you loose to give a full breakdown of the injury. We will ask a lot of questions!
What were you doing at the time? How did it feel? When and where did it happen? Which area is sore? What makes it worse/better? Describe the sensation of pain - does it shoot, ache, throb? We may also get you to do a few exercises to test flexibility or strength, or walk infront of the camera to see if there is anything your walking gait may show. But be rest assured we will guide you through the whole process as seemlessly as possible to get an accurate diagnosis of the problem.
But you may wonder how we can then help from an online platform, well ... we have our tricks. Our 3 step plan:
Our new system will allow us to send you exercises for strengthening and flexibility via the app - no matter on the type of sports injury we find that rehabilitation starts with strength and conditioning. It is this that will build a protective element into your management or the injury - to stop it getting worse and assist in the recovery process. We can track the improvement using your own input through the app - tell us what helps and what makes it worse. We can create a tailored plan that works for you. Evidence backs this up too with many guidelines having strength and conditioning front and centre as part of your long term care plan with other manual treatments more as an adjunct to short term management and pain relief.
RICE - and not the risotto type! RICE stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Generally speaking many new sports injuries will have some localised inflammation. RICE will help to ease the inflammation that can cause a great deal of pain, the additional fluid to the area may also restrict joint motion - altering the way you walk. We can take you through different ways of using this with the exercise plan to encourage rather than discourage the healing process.
Manual devices sent directly to your home. For some conditions there are highly effective devices that can be used in their treatment. We
will endeavour to get them to you as soon as possible so that they can start helping. It may be as simple as a heel lift for inside your
shoe, a resistance band to exercise with or a gel insole to reduce impact.
You can trust that although this method of treatment and advice is new to us, our online assessments are all covered by our highly trained, fully qualified, registered podiatrists that have a wealth of knowledge in these issues.
If you think this may be of interest to you, please give us a call and we will be happy to guide you through the setup process.