As some of you may know, I suffered a knee injury in November last year, and I still have knee pain now despite consultations with a physiotherapist & chiropractor. As fate would have it, I received an invitation from Orchard Health Clinic (OHC) to go down for a session! Talk about great timing!
If you want to know what a session with an osteopath is like, this post is for you! You also check out my previous posts linked above.
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OHC used to be at Park Mall and Bukit Timah, but I understand they have merged and now have a considerably larger office at Faber House (opposite 313@Somerset) (my previous visit was to the Park Mall branch). There are 6 treatment rooms now, and they seemed pretty busy when I arrived at 3PM for my appointment.
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| My osteopath for the day was Daniele, a handsome Italian man haha. |
The session began with me sharing about my knee problem, and he asked fairly routine questions to understand the issue. Nothing different from other medical professionals here.
Then came the physical examination. I have seen a physio, a chiro, and a GP, but I feel that osteopaths (or at least those at OHC) excel at one thing that the rest don't do - identifying skeletal imbalances through visual inspection, and also explaining and showing you what these are and why they may cause the symptoms. Similar to my previous experience with my wrist, they look at the 'full-body connection', as imbalances somewhere may lead to pain elsewhere.
Daniele explained that knee issues are often not a direct issue at the knee, but are a 'victim' of imbalances elsewhere such as at the hip and the ankle. He pointed out a slight hip imbalance I had, as well as my tendency to internally rotate my hips while externally rotating my knee when performing squats/lunges.
He also used a knee model to explain what he suspected was happening - while my femur turned a certain way, my patella (knee cap) doesn't always follow due to tightness/weakness elsewhere, and this results in friction since the patella/femur are misaligned, and this could result in inflammation.
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| My 100% accurate medical drawing |
Treatment for me was some deep tissue release of my glutes, hamstrings, lower back, calves. He also worked on my ankles a bit to improve their dorsal/plantar flexion (or in English, the extent to which I can point my toes up or down). Some pics of the session:
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| A lot of hip work |
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| Love the deep tissue release! |
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| He said I had good hip flexibility! hence he could rotate my leg like that without any pain. |
He also did some ultrasound thingy on my left knee, which was supposed to clear up any inflammation. The idea is that ultrasound waves help to stimulate blood flow, which can help to reduce swelling and inflammation!
He rounded up the treatment with some simple spinal adjustment (cracking!). Slightly uncomfortable, but felt ok after it was done. He will ask if you are ok with it, so if you are not, just say no la.
To end the session, he prescribed a hip strengthening exercise, which was meant to help me minimize and correct the internal rotation of my hips (basically the 'naughty girl' / hip abduction machine), and a hip flexor stretch.
So you may be reading all this with one main question in mind - should you go to OHC for a session? I will give you 3 points to consider.
1) For all 3 visits to OHC, I've always been impressed with how meticulous the osteopaths are in explaining my issue(s) to me. They use actual anatomical terms, but also codeswitch to 'layman' terms often to make sure I can understand them. If you want to gain a better appreciation for how the different joints/muscles/tendons in your body works in tandem, OHC is definitely beneficial.
2) The osteopaths are skilled and good with their hands. If you read my previous 2 posts, you will know that my osteopath was super strong and handled me as if I weighed nothing, but I never once felt any pain and all movements were clearly highly controlled. This time round, Daniele was similarly skillful in manipulating my limbs, and I felt very comfortable despite the various deep stretches and movements he put my limbs through.
3) Most importantly, is the treatment effective? Well, it's too early for me to say now for my knee issue, though it does feel slightly better (placebo or otherwise). And for my wrist pain previously... let's just say I don't have anymore wrist pain now (though admittedly it could be a combination of the treatment and my improvement of form for my weightlifting exercises).
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If you want to book a session with OHC, you can do so at their website, or call their hotline at 6336 9577. You can quote my name (Alan) for a 20% discount if you are a first-time customer!
Orchard Health Clinic
230 Orchard Road
#04-232 Faber House
S238854
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about OHC!
