Physiotherapists in Sherborne treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Chronic Neck Pain

The risk of long term neck pain and disability has been the subject of much investigation to try and stop this disabling, painful and costly condition developing. The warning signs which indicate a risk of developing this condition are known as yellow flags and are mostly to do with our understanding and emotional state. Physical factors are much less important unless they are very high levels of pain after an injury. Yellow flags include believing that the neck pain is due to serious injury or damage to the neck tissues; avoiding activity or movement due to fear of causing damage; resting excessively; waiting for a cure for the pain instead of working on it themselves; developing depression and becoming withdrawn; not improving over a couple of weeks; believing that hurt equals harm and that disability is likely.

These symptoms and attitudes can sneak up on someone so it is important to work at getting mobile and back to normal as soon as possible after injury or an episode of neck pain. It is useful to analyse how the recovery is going and take steps to fix any of the problems that the patient or an adviser identifies as relevant.

Calf Muscle Tears

The calf muscles are large and powerful muscles in the lower leg, the main ones being named the gastrocnemius and soleus. These muscles push the body weight along in gait and help us run, exerting very high forces in the process. If the forces exerted by someone in a powerful activity exceed the ability of the calf muscle to cope then an muscle tear results. A tear of the calf muscle occurs very suddenly and is extremely painful, with swelling developing very quickly. The person is unable to put their heel down as it is much too painful to stretch the calf that way and they often walk on tiptoe if they can weight beat at all.

Physiotherapy treatment initially aims at reducing the pain and swelling with ice, compression and the provision of walking aids to reduce the stresses through the calf. Analgesics are also useful and once the pain has reduced then active movement of the foot in a downwards direction can start contracting the muscles again. Once the foot can be placed flat on the floor then normal gait can be encouraged with a heel raise in the shoe to prevent stretching. Muscle strengthening can then be prescribed by the physio as rehabilitation proceeds.