Sylvain Kalache

mountain biking, hiking, diving, climbing

Born and Raised in France, now a San Francisco native and entrepreneur who can’t go a day without cheese. He is the Co-founder of Holberton School; a college alternative for Software Engineers that is free until students find a job.

Summary

Patient presented to Motus a chronic 2 + year history of constant debilitating low back pain. He had multiple rounds of physical therapy, chiropractic and even saw an alternative care practitioner without success. He was beginning to feel hopeless and after receiving a personal recommendation he decided to try a different approach to his care

Problem & History

Moderate to severe low back muscle atrophy with overuse of secondary back stabilizers allowing an increased compressive load on the spine, stressing both the joints and discs of the spine. This resulted in intolerance to any prolonged activity or inactivity: sitting, standing, walking etc.
Due to the fact that he was unable to tolerate any impact he also reported shin splints which prevented him from running/sport.

Solution

Initial focus was on pain management which we achieved with regular soft tissue work and joint mobilizations/adjustments. This allowed temporary change in his pain cycle so we could start to build new movement patterns and break the old.
After this initial tendious process we began to slowly load the patient to tolerance to build up his trunk/core strength isolating the atrophied back muscles with resisted/weighted exercises.
Lastly, we added back in activity, building to tolerance while we continued to strengthen the patient.

Results

After 6 weeks pain reduced, within 2 months patients pain was minimal and finally after 3 months the patient was back to activity and is now running and cycling pain free after 2 + years of not being able too.
Update: Patient signed up for his first 1/2 marathon in 3 years!

To phrase this simply…

it has been life changing for me

Yelp Review

It had been 2 years and a half that I had back pain every single day. The pain was ruining my life, I had to keep my back covered with pain relieving patches so that I could handle the pain and live “normally”. I have tried countless other professionals with different specialties during these years and none could move the needle. For the visit, Lindsay who is the chiropractor gave me her diagnostic, but she wanted an MRI of my back(that I had done by previous Dr but neither the lab neither him could see any issue) to back up her theory. at the second visit, the MRI showed exactly what she said, and that was a huge hope for me as all previous professionals had theories but nothing to back it. She advises me the unlimited pack (yes it’s a lot of money but worth it!!!) and I went for it. After a month in, not much had changed, I did not want to lose hope as I was confident in Lindsay diagnostic and believed the method of receiving chiropractic and physical therapists care at the same location, the main reason is they sync up their work. I went for a second unlimited plan. I remember this time when Lindsay realized that it was a month in and she was not happy of the insignificant results, she toldme something like, “that will not last, we will make this pain go away, there is no way we will fail at this”.

That made me laugh but more seriously I loved that she was not settling on unsatisfying results. She adjusted a bit the treatment along with the PT onsite and BOOM! The magic happened! I had no more back pain 2 weeks after. I can’t express how happy I am about this. Lindsay literally allowed me to get my life back. I was starting to lose hope after 2 years and half of useless treatment, so much time, energy and money spent for nothing. I was hearing countless stories of people who are living with back pain and gave up trying to treat it. Spending their life taking painkillers and injections, I was fearing for the worse. If you read this, Lindsay: thank you! You did magic on me and I cannot express with words how happy I am. On top of being great at what they are doing, they are also fun, like really fun. So that has been always a pleasure to be treated by them. Finally kudos to Joanna who was also part of the good laugh, always willing to help and also always right 🙂 (When the conditions are right, she can speak to you in French.) Motus clinic is not worth 5 stars, it’s worth a million ones.PS: My initial review was posted on 7/12/2017. Now posting on 11/11/2018. On top of fixing my back, it also indirectly fixed my shin issue! Which will allow me to run, I am going to participate in Bay to Breakers 2019!

A word from the founder

“Low back injuries are a nasty reality to live with and are more debilitating than the top 3 diseases in the US combined. The pain and suffering can be relentless, shrinking their lives and limiting activity. It commonly drives patients to feel hopeless and can lead to depression. However despite what we are seeing now, back pain does not have to be a life sentence. It brings us great joy and we are honored to have made such a positive difference.”
Dr. Lindsay StephensDC, CCSP, FMT

If he can do it, you can do it.

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Lower Back Pain is not a life sentence