Self Healing can Control Your Healthcare Costs

Self Healing can Control Your Healthcare Costs, and I can prove it!  The middle of last summer, my friend, Donna Buessing, introduced me to a great book called Pain Free by Peter Egoscue.  Donna heard of the book from someone at her gym and told me about it when I told her I had foot pain for more than a year and I was looking for some relief.  Donna had a copy of the book and she let me borrow it.  I didn’t want to keep it long since she was working on her own issue, so I took the book home, studied it and followed the exercises that night.

If you’ve ever had plantar faciitis, you know how painful it can be.  When you get up in the morning, your foot is stiff and extremely painful.  Although I hadn’t been officially diagnosed, I knew that’s what I had.  After reading the chapter on foot pain and following the exercises one night, the next morning I got out of bed and didn’t hobble to the bathroom.  My foot was 75% better overnight!  I was ecstatic to say the least.  I couldn’t believe the improvement.  I had to return the book to my friend Donna, as promised the next day, so I ordered my own copy on Amazon.

AND YET HE DIDN’T BELIEVE ME!

I had already scheduled an appointment at the podiatrist and I took my book with me.  As I suspected he diagnosed me with plantar faciitis.  He wouldn’t even let me finish my sentence when I was tried telling him about the book.  Apparently he wasn’t interested in listening to my discovery.  He referred me to physical therapy and casted me for orthotics.  I went to physical therapy for 12 visits which helped my foot the remaining 25%.  I kept up my exercises that I got from the book.  I wore the orthotics whenever I ran, race walked or played golf.

I CAN’T REMEMBER EVERYTHING

This past weekend I had the opportunity to play golf.  I was a last-minute fill in and I had 35 minutes to get ready which included making coffee, breakfast (a green smoothie of course) taking a shower and getting out the door.  I was able to pull it off, but when I got to the golf course, not only had I forgotten my orthotics, but I had removed the insoles of my new golf shoes when I played golf last month so the orthotics would fit properly.  So I went into the golf shop thinking “oh what the heck, I’ll just buy another pair” (never mind that I already have nine pairs of golf shoes).  The only shoes that I liked were exactly like the ones I had on and they were more expensive than what I paid.  So off I went walking the golf course with the shoes I brought.  No insoles, no orthotics.  By the time I finished walking 18 holes, I had no pain.

golfing

Although I went through the trouble and expense of physical therapy, the initial experience I had from the book my friend introduced me to made the biggest difference to me.  Could I have attained the same results if I had skipped physical therapy?  I think so.  I used the book recently to help me with a pain in my elbow, yes probably from golf, but I resolved the issue 100% just by following the exercises.

Researching a little and asking people you trust for recommendations may be able to help you control your health care spending.  This can be a big deal for people with higher deductible plans.  When you are paying for your costs instead of just simple co-payments it gives you a different perspective.

A LITTLE EFFORT ON YOUR PART

My recommendation – if you are having pain either hip, back, knee, shoulder, foot etc., think about buying  the book as an option.  You can spend far less money on a book that may be able to help you not to mention taking your time and money to see a physical therapist.  Physical Therapy is absolutely necessary for many issues, but it’s nice to have options.  And one more thing, you do have to actually do the exercises if you want the pain to go away whether you go to physical therapy or use the book.

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