What brought me to Egoscue?

I had been experiencing a gradual diminishing of my ability to run long distances. My legs would stiffen, my stride would shorten and I would experience so much abdominal and pelvic pain during a run that it would feel like I was just grinding to a halt. After the run would be even worse and I would be sore for days. At first the pain would kick in only during long mileage (18 miles or more) but over the course of a year or so, even 2-3 miles became painful. I gradually just stopped running because I didn't want to deal with the pain. Being active has always been an important part of my life and I was miserable being inactive. I started getting out of shape and that made me even less motivated to try, thus starting a negative downward spiral that was hard to break out of.

As a cancer survivor, I know that pain needs to be addressed. I had myself checked out to rule out anything cancer or illness related. Radiographs and CT Scans indicated nothing was organically wrong with me, and my joints were fine, so that was a relief. But that made the pain even more mysterious. No one could figure out the issue. And by "no one" I mean a sports medicine physician, physical therapist, and I even went to a chiropractor. Normally I consider most chiropractors to be quacks, but I gave it a shot. I suspected that I was not "aligned" properly due to a great deal of scar tissue from my multiple cancer surgeries. I suspected that years of triathlon training while misaligned finally became too much for my body. No one really had a way to address that. I read the Pain Free book several years ago and it made sense to me. After a visit to the clinic recently, I worked my E-scise menu for 3-4 days and noted an immediate improvement in my ability to run short distances without pain. This past 4th of July I was able to participate in the Peachtree Road Race-a 10k distance. I anticipated being miserable but figured I would gut out the distance for the sake of the race. I discovered that I wasn't miserable. I didn't hurt. The next day I went for a 20 mile bike ride. I felt great! The negative, downward spiral has been broken, and I am once again motivated to start planning and training for marathons and triathlons.

I was diagnosed with moderate scoliosis (30 degree curve) around my 25th birthday after I had gone from running ½ marathons and rowing competitively to barely being able to walk down the block without being in pain. Thankfully, my dad had already started the Egoscue program and talked me into going. I was very skeptical at first given my prognosis and what I had already been told by other specialists, but within days of starting the program I began feeling more like myself again. Having now been faithful to the program for over 10 years, it has allowed me to maintain and even increase my active lifestyle to include everything and anything I want—tennis, diving, skiing, etc. Plus, I sometimes even get compliments about my posture as well! I can honestly say that the Egoscue program has changed my life. Without it, I would have missed out on so many life opportunities. With it, I am confident that I will have many, many more for years to come. Thank you Egoscue!

Degenerative Hip
"I've been doing Egoscue for 12 months now in the Atlanta Clinic. I'm doing amazingly well! I'm regenerating a degenerative hip. When I came to Egoscue I was taking 2800 mg of ibuprofen per day. Now, I'm not taking any pain medication! I do my exercises EVERY day and have no pain in my hip. It's exciting to be able to run after my grandchildren!

Frozen Shoulder
My journey to Egoscue began at age 51 when I awoke one morning with sudden pain in my left shoulder. It steadily got worse and to avoid pain I avoided movement. Soon I could hardly move my arm at all. My ten month quest to regain full, pain-free motion of my arm led me to four doctors, two chiropractors, two physical therapists and a neuromuscular therapist. I had X-rays, an MRI and four different diagnosis. No one was able to help using any significant change to my frozen shoulder. Unexpectedly, one day, I received the "Pain Free" book in the mail from a friend. I read it in one sitting and immediately started the exercises for shoulder pain. Finally I had found something that made absolute sense. Egoscue had to be the solution to my pain and immobility.

My friend sent me to the Egoscue Clinic in Atlanta for therapy. I worked really hard doing the exercises faithfully everyday. I've been through two eight week sessions and am currently going to therapy once a month. I’ve seen phenomenal change in my posture. It has been eight months since I began therapy and I have 99% of my range of motion (pain free!) back in one direction and I'm getting more and more range of motion the other direction. I'm not totally functional yet but I will eventually get there and reach my goal to rock climb. To be honest, progress at times has seemed very slow, but I was in bad shape and had a long way to go. I'm almost there and am infinitely better off than if I had never began. Egoscue has been one of God’s greatest blessings in my life as an avenue to renewed health and fitness.

In April of 2005, we returned from wintering in Costa Rica. I was in terrific pain, using a cane and we thought I would need at least 1 hip replaced. However, my Orthopedic Surgeon said it was my spine. After having an MRI and going to the Cleveland Spine Institute the results were I has Stenosis, Spondylosis, and Scoliosis!! I do have degenerative joint disease (Osteo-Arthritis) They prescribed pain medication 4 times daily. This helped but I didn't want to be on pain meds for the rest of my life. A Neuro-surgeon said that he could operate, but there were no guarantees that it would relieve the pain. I asked each Doctor about possible Exercise or Diet that might help. All said there was nothing in these areas that would help.

Then a friend recommended Pete Egoscue's book, "Painfree". I read it from cover to cover in one weekend and kept saying, "this makes so much sense"! On our way back to Costa Rica in June, my husband and I went to the Egoscue Clinic in Atlanta, GA and were evaluated by Kathy Mulherin. She gave me my first menu and I've been faithfully (every day) doing the menu she prescribes for me each month. I have been relatively pain free for almost 2 years.

What is so terrific is that through the internet, I can send in my pictures and she can see my progress. In August, I had a second Dexiscan. Since my last one the previous August I have improved in the spine from .07 to 1.0, a 2.6% increase. My left hip gained only 0.2%, but my right hip improved from -1.3 to -1.1, a 3.7% gain! Need-less to say, I am thrilled and can not recommend the Egoscue Method enough. It has been my "saving grace". I will always have Osteo Arthritis. Both too much physical activity and cold, damp days give me some pain, but I can live with that.

Degenerative Knees
I have less pain and more freedom of motion. I am lopsided and the improvement has been signifiicant-still needs more. I plan to continue the e-cises as long as I live. The e-cises have become a habit and I can tell a difference if I skip a day. I was told and felt pretty sure that I was going to have knee replacement surgery but since I have been doing the Egoscue e-cises, as of now I feel that I will not have a knee replacement in the near future.

Sciatica, Neck Pain, TMJ
I began Egoscue in September 2006. My main complaints at the onset were numbness and tingling in both arms and legs. Sciatica in my left leg, neck pain and TMJ. I felt tired, depressed and had tried 3 chiropractors, 2 ENT Specialist, a neurosurgeon, a rheumatoidologist, massage therapy, a naturalist doctor trained by Andrew Weil, herbs and an internist and just about anything else suggested.

After the first month at Egoscue I began to feel better. As my posture changed my TMJ worsened and I had vertigo for several months. Sally and Kathy, my Egoscue therapists, kept telling me to hang in there I was making progress. They warned me that this would not be a quick fix and it wasn’t. If I hadn’t believed in what they were telling me and what I had read, I would have given up. I only missed one day in 6 months of doing my execise menu. I do “the tower” almost everyday for one hour. My posture has improved; all the symptoms I came in with have gone or are very much improved. Some times I felt so poorly and I complained a lot but Egoscue has changed my life from constant pain to wanting to keep myself from going back to pain. It took me seven months to get over that mountain. I couldn’t have done this without Egoscue.