Maygan’s Story: No More Hip Pain After Physical Therapy

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Maygan Boettcher was transitioning from basketball to soccer season when she noticed a problem with her leg.

“It felt like a tearing. It was a horrible feeling ‘cause every time I moved my leg, it would feel like it would tear,” she says.

Initially, Maygan pushed aside any concern, went out of town and played in some tournament games. Afterward, she couldn’t move her legs.

“Her injury was one of those leftovers from a long season, so I showed her some extra stretches to see if that would help alleviate her discomfort,” says Kathy Reed, a certified athletic trainer who works with the Lebanon schools. “When she saw me a few weeks later it wasn’t much better, so I decided to refer her to Dr. Linker.”

Highly-Recommended Care 

Timothy Linker, MD is a family physician who participated in an extra sports medicine fellowship, Reed says. “I saw Maygan essentially had an overuse hip injury. This had not gotten better. Initially, my concern, because of her age, was that she may have a stress injury versus just an overuse muscle injury,” Dr. Linker says. The diagnosis was tendonitis caused by overuse.

Maygan’s mom, Mylea Richmond, says Dr. Linker came highly recommended. “It was the first thing that was mentioned like ‘hey, you should take her to Dr. Linker,’” she says.

Reed says she makes it clear at each season’s parent meeting that she would never refer someone to a provider that she doesn’t refer her own children to see.

“Maygan had been working with our certified athletic trainer, Kathy Reed. We then progressed her to some more formal physical therapy, which in her case was very beneficial,” Dr. Linker says.

Richmond says she had received physical therapy at Atrium Medical Center Sports Medicine several years before following ACL surgery. “We both recommended that we just have the therapy here,” she says of Atrium Sports Medicine.

Jesse Ehrnschwender, PT, MPT, of Atrium’s sports medicine and physical therapy department, worked with Maygan.

“What we noticed when we were looking at underlying issues with Maygan was that her glutes were not performing at their best. And, she was compensating with her low back muscles, she was compensating with her thigh muscles, which, in my opinion, led to the injury of inner thigh muscles in the first place,” Ehrnschwender says. “That’s why she was here, for a groin strain. So, we directed her treatment toward building up the areas she was having issues in to kind of correct the muscle imbalance and the movement issues that she had.”

Part of a Bigger Team

Dr. Linker says Reed consistently is the first person athletes turn to at the Lebanon school. “Parents will generally call Kathy before they will call anyone else,” he says.

Maygan agreed. “If there is a pain anywhere, she’s the go-to person. And if you have another pain at all, she will say go here for help or do this,” she says.

“When I have an athlete go down … I can help them get back up there and I get to make sure that they get to their right doctor and get them over to Premier Health for diagnostics in rehab or what not,” Reed says. “I get to be the one that gets to watch them come back on the court for the first time.”

Following five weeks of recovery, Maygan was back on the soccer field.

“Maygan is doing extremely well … she was able to progress through her physical therapy, she was continuing to work with the athletic trainer at the high school. She had full recovery. Maygan went on to have a great season,” Dr. Linker says.

The continuity of care the team was able to provide Maygan was very important, Ehrnschwender says. “One of the best parts of my job is knowing that I’m part of a bigger team that is set up to really take care of folks that need help through their whole process of recovery,” he says.

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