Saved from Forced Retirement by Experimental Self Treatment, Recovery Phases​ from Short Right Leg Syndrome

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Twice I have reached the point of seriously considering retirement from active life because of increasing lower limb disability and pain that defied all treatment. Daily walks in the forest attempting to activate the legs saw me turning for home some days a mere 200 metres down the track. It was looking like I would soon need a mobility scooter to get to the supermarket. The medico's and therapists had failed me. I say this respectfully because they practised to the best of their ability and no doubt I did benefit in some way from their treatment, yet the status quo of my condition remained unchanged. None considered the possibility of a leg length discrepancy. It was not for lack of opportunity on their part...through 2018, 2019 and 2020 I received vast amounts (weekly/fortnightly/monthly) of Chiropractic, TCM and Thai Massage treatment and consulted Medical Doctors. Never experiencing anything more than limited temporary relief from treatment. My condition continued to degenerate. Pain and disability becoming overwhelming until resorting to experimental self treatment when faced with the prospect of retirement from active life from a condition I now know is the result of a congenital structural leg length discrepancy of 21mm compounded by major lumbro-sacral injury sustained in 2016. At times I walked like Frankenstein.​

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First Phase, January 2021

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Trialling a 5mm heel lift to elevate a short right leg and reduce pelvic tilt. Immediate beneficial and enduring therapeutic effect on spine, lower limbs and vitality that played out over ten months. The very next day the niggling pain in the left knee that had been making itself known with every step taken is gone. Standing there looking at my feet I realised I was feeling energy flowing...I could breathe into them once again. Four days later ceasing lumbar rehab to manage the old back injury bothered by a nagging disk bulge. All discomfort was gone. Rehab was no longer required. At day 34, three days of blissful relief through the Thoracic spine and dramatically increased rotational movement...no longer needing to use mirrors reversing the car...I was looking over my shoulder better than I had 25 years prior. At the three month mark digestion is turbo charged and vitality levels increase. At six months crippling rheumatic pain in both knees entirely resolved. At ten months the Cervical spine releases and torque like sensation through the skull eases accompanied by a subtle sensation of relaxation experienced bilaterally through to the temples.​

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Second Phase, January 2022​

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Heel lift treatment did not resolve all symptoms. Bladder meridian pain in the right hamstring, calf and heel, accompanied by thickening and tightening through the limb and restricted flexion of the knee that commenced suddenly on 18 March 2020 was unchanged. Initially intermittent then becoming chronic after a few months. Despite dramatic results from the heel lift treatment, this condition persisted. It reached the point where for the second time I was considering retirement from active life. Two years of TCM herbal and acupuncture treatment did not resolve the condition. Continued Chiropractic was similarly ineffective.  Recognising the Second Cardinal Sign of rigidity at the right hip was responsible, I trial self treatment releasing tightness at the right hip and small of back to eliminate strangulation of the Bladder meridian.

 

This meridian makes a convoluted passage around the kidneys, down the lumbar spine and sacrum, back up to and out across the Iliac Crest before descending to leg and foot. Applying indirect fascial release techniques in conjunction with Chi Gong Therapy and, within minutes, a strong sensation of warmth in the foot is felt at the beginning of the Kidney meridian. Then the sole of the foot became warm, followed by a softening and warming of the entire limb. Pain was eliminated. These effects occurred in rapid succession within minutes of focussing on the right Iliac Crest. What looked like lying on my side merely holding a palm to the small of the back was, in fact, advanced therapy. It took no more than 15 minutes. After the long suffering and ineffective treatment, it was like a small miracle. I repeated this treatment daily for many months. No longer as intense nor as dramatic as the initial event with the now improved condition. Several years later, it still elicits a softening and warming down the lower limb.​

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Interestingly, when considering this approach to treatment and discussing it with my TCM doctor, he advised to the contrary. He was of the view it was a Kidney deficiency issue and not a blocked Bladder meridian. This was the same opinion of another TCM doctor consulted early in the development of these symptoms in the right lower limb. Neither of these practitioners understood the nature of Short Right Leg Syndrome and its effect on energetic Qi flow through the pelvis.

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I had been given a few clues to this one. A decade prior when examined by Master Dawson Tao, 14th generation Dao Yin Chi Gong Therapist, he advised...amongst other things..."your right kidney is weak and your left kidney is strong." The clinic's TCM practitioner examined me on the day acute right leg symptoms occurred in March 2020 stating it was related to the Bladder meridian and I needed to begin herbal treatment for Kidney treatment.

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Then through 2021 considering continued pain and dysfunction in the right leg despite the dramatic and enduring therapeutic effects from heel lift treatment and vast amounts of Chiropractic, TCM and Thai massage for the condition…

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●   and reflecting on Master Tao's advice about the right kidney;
●   and the nature of the Second Cardinal Sign of rigidity at the right hip;
●   coinciding with the right leg symptoms;
●   together with three clients presenting in clinic with identical right leg symptoms and all three had the short right leg too...​

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…the universe was telling me, "Yes Simon, you are correct to be considering the sidedness and the effects of a short right leg at the right hip."​

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The TCM practitioners seeing the Bladder meridian pain in the lower limb together with a weak Kidney pulse at the wrist, considered they were a consequence of Kidney deficiency where, in fact, it was the other way around. A postural issue at the hips and pelvis blocking the Bladder meridian's energetic Qi flow, was starving the Kidney's energetically. The TCM clock of energetic Qi flow through the organs depicts the Bladder feeding the Kidneys energetically. Where the Bladder meridian is blocked, deficiency in the Kidneys results. Yes, I had required TCM treatment all my adult life for chronic Kidney deficiency. However, I was also under the effect all my adult life by a short right leg generating rigidity at the right hip. This was compounded by much athletic performance since I was a boy and lumbar injury at age 23. Compounded further by an even more acute lumbar injury at age 60. It forced me out of sport. I walked like Frankenstein. Vast amounts of treatment had not changed the condition. Kidney treatment was no doubt beneficial to my health but it was a stop gap measure. The blockage at the hips had to be cleared for an effective outcome.​

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I now describe Bladder meridian "Choke Points" at the right Iliac Crest, the insertion of the Biceps Femoris tendon to the head of the Fibula and the lateral aspect of the heel. Most commonly sighted at the right lower limb but left side cases are possible in the event of lumbro-sacral injury causing muscular spasm affecting right or left side.  Left side cases are hypothetically possible too in those rare instances of a short left leg but the chances of this are remote.

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The question might be asked why this condition at the right hip causing Bladder meridian pain did not respond to heel lift treatment commenced in January 2021. Simply put, the heel lift at 5mm was only a quarter of the leg length discrepancy. There is a limit to how much adjustment the body will accept. Gait effects generating the Second Cardinal Sign of rigidity at the right hip were still present despite the heel lift. It is probable it will be necessary to carry out supplementary treatment indefinitely at the right hip to clear tightness impacting the Bladder meridian's passage. I have more recently increased the size of the heel lift when distortion and strain through the pelvis has unwound and eased but even after nearly three years of heel lift use, the body does not want more than a third or a half of the discrepancy as an adjustment in my case of a high range 21mm discrepancy.

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Some aspects of recovery have been rapid and dramatic, some slow and incremental. I describe two phases of the recovery process above. There has been a Third Phase relating to the First Cardinal Sign and an unstable and damaged left Sacro-Iliac Joint rotated several times beyond its normal range of motion for five decades. For that matter, the right SIJ is a bit dodgy too due to the effects of the Second Cardinal Sign.

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I do know had I done things differently at the time of the lumbro-sacral injury in 2016 this entire experience might have been avoided. Prior to injury, use of an adjusting heel lift in footwear and use of a chock between pedal and cycling shoe. This did not happen. No coach, therapist or doctor had ever considered assessing structural leg length. Maintaining flexibility through the pelvis through cross training (Swimming/Tai Chi/Pilates/Yoga). This did not happen. I had done much of these at other times in my life but was going through a phase of focusing on cycling with increasingly heavy training loads and high intensity sprint efforts. Post injury many things might have been done differently had I known what the true underlying causation was. This did not happen. That took a further five years of deteriorating condition and ineffective therapy and treatment before the truth of the matter was revealed to me. As a result, I have been through a first hand tutorial in Short Right Leg Syndrome giving insight to some of the very worst that can happen from the effects of this condition and which I would not have known otherwise. This is not known by conventional therapists or medico's and it is not taught anywhere.​

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It should be noted that had it not been for the reprieve from daily activity and work imposed by multiple Lockdowns during the 2020 Pandemic in Melbourne, Australia, I may not have had the luxury to negotiate this and would now be riding a mobility scooter to the supermarket. It is probable many others out there on their mobility scooters have similar underlying conditions. A short right leg is a dominant genetic trait.​

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Simon Crittenden
Remedial Massage Therapist
Member of Massage and Myotherapy Australia