FarParker

Greetings Farparker Fans & Members!   Well, as the first editorial piece written by the ‘goalie’ side of the Farparker crew, I thought I would let you all know about a very interesting treatment I received over the past few months… 

You see, years (and years) ago I did what every young stud never means to do – blew my knee trying to look cool on the slopes of Silverstar trying to impress my girlfriend. Okay…I was actually trying to impress the friend my girlfriend had brought with her, but that’s beside the point.

Fact was, arthroscopic surgery, physiotherapy, rehab, strength training, massage…and just about every other means to get my knee back to normal never produced results or brought me back to my “pre uncoolness” mobility. The pain continued to increase, along with greater immobility, to the point that I was popping 2 Advil’s before each game and usually one afterward to alleviate the growing discomfort (Rum was another option to the Advil, but I knew once the mickey was popped I’d never end up leaving my farparking spot and inevitably miss the game…)

It was shortly thereafter that I was introduced to a treatment known as “Prolotherapy” by a local Naturopathic Physician contact of mine named Dr. Jamie Gallant (link to www.doctorgallant.com) Essentially; Prolotherapy involves injections of sugar and anesthetic into the ligaments to stimulant healing. Sounds a wee bit scary I know…needles and all, but really, the pain isn’t much more than you would feel in an acupuncture session (more on that later). Since the ligaments are connective tissues that brace the bones within the body and stabilize joints, when they are damaged they become ‘stretched’ and lose their ability to provide that stabilization. Thus, old ski injuries from years past suddenly become current problems when you try to pretend you’re Martin Brodeur and send your knee popping like Orville’s famous corn. Prolotherapy aims to fix this.

Think of your ligaments like a huge wad of Juicy Fruit. Now, spit the wad into your hand and roll it into a cigar shaped clump. That’s your ligament. See how it’s nice and thick? That allows blood to easily swim through it, bringing fresh nutrients, oxygen and other fun stuff to keep it healthy. Now here’s the test: stretch it out as far as it goes. You see what happens? That’s Right! It gets THINNER (and who said hockey players ain’t dat goode at thunking…) When you damage a ligament (think words that scare you at bedtime such as “ACL Tear” or “No more Tiger Woods this year…”), the stretching action prevents nutrients from flowing readily through the tissue, thus preventing the body’s own mechanism to heal and rebuild itself. 

(See that big rip...in this uh, big wad of chewing gum?  Well...that's kinda what your torn ligaments look like.  Prolotherapy made mine look like a fresh stick 'o Juicy Fruit again!!)

Traditional medicine says we need to “cut the bad part out,” or find ways to cut and reconnect the good parts. IE: SURGERY. Then, spend months in rehab…but the fundamental problem is never really corrected. It’s even worse for those of you/us/we who never go to get the initial problem fixed at all. Trust me…I’ve been through it all. 

Now, I’m not a doctor/surgeon/health professional of any kind and the aim of this article is certainly not to discredit the way we have done things for many, many years. However I want to express my personal thoughts about Prolotherapy as an ALTERNATIVE that you may not have considered, and here’s why…

Okay. You don’t know me from a hole in the back of the net you keep missing, but if I can help one hockey player get back to their game then I guess I’ve done my work for the year. Honestly though…I was as skeptical as they come, but knowing Dr. Gallant and his level of expertise, I thought “what the hell” and decided to give it a try. And thus, share my personal experience with you!

The first session did actually hurt a little (like “Intense Acupuncture”) when the needles were injected into the ligaments (yes – you did read that right…the needles went into the ligaments), but the unpleasantness was somewhat of a sign that the ligaments were in need of help. I’d say they were screaming at me for being an a-hole to them, but if you want results you just tell your mind to shut them ligaments the hell up. The knees were a bit tender for a couple of days, but really…it wasn’t all that bad. My treatments continued for about 3 months, visiting Dr. Gallant about twice per month, and with each session the unpleasantness was less and less. In fact, I could barely feel the treatment being administered after the first few sessions.

What was happening was simple. The injections were putting sugar water (plus a mild anesthetic) directly into the ligaments, which caused them to swell up. Now, remember that wad of Juicy Fruit you stretched out? Squish it back into the cigar shape…This was allowing the blood to begin re-flowing and bring those missing nutrients back into the ligament, which as far as I’m concerned did exactly what was supposed to happen – it rebuilt my knee ligament into the $6 Million Man I was prior to the ski mishap. Okay…maybe not quite bionic, but it has completely eliminated the pain I suffered from for years, and has allowed me to get back to enjoying my sports without thought of discomfort, or ADVIL!! Even better – it’s probably saved me from years of degeneration and potential knee replacement surgery down the line.

This treatment can be applied to shoulders, knees, wrists, backs, necks – wherever there may be pain that prevents you from ‘being all you can want to be’ on the ice. My family doctor had never heard of it until I suddenly showed up in his office and hack squatted his receptionist, so you may want to do a little research on the topic to see if it right for you. Further, most company medical plans now cover (at least a portion of) naturopathic services, so if you have a nagging pain or old injury that just won’t piss off, maybe Prolotherapy is something you should investigate.

If anyone else has had experience with Prolotherapy, we’d love to hear about it.  Please feel free to share your comments here in our forum, and enjoy your games!!