THE PZ COMICS

3 min read | Pain Science

Written by Natasja Azad, Nirja shah

Graphics by Pranali Oswal

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Olivia knew, she just knew deep in her bones, that she should stop. That listening to her body was more crucial than her check out time at the gym registry.

“One more set of jumps and I’ll be done” she tried to assuage herself. Five years of training had taught her better, but she went ahead anyway.

She proceeded to do split jumps and soon found herself embarrassingly sprawled on the gym floor. Sharp pain in her knees had her grabbing them and curling up into a ball.

*the above conversation into 3 panels*

That’s how her volleyball coach found her a few minutes later.

“Have you broken something?” he asked. His voice, a monotone pitch, devoid of any warmth.

Olivia was working extra hard at the gym in an attempt to somehow, magically, earn a compliment from her volleyball coach. For it was magic, the guy never gave compliments!

He shook his head in unconcealed disappointment, “You have, haven’t you? Take someone with you and go to the physiotherapy clinic. Keep me updated on what they say.”

At the PZ clinic,

Let’s have a look at your knee, Olivia” Dr PhysioZest said. ¹

Olivia looked at Dr PZ worriedly, “ I hope it’s nothing serious dr. I have this volleyball qualifier next month for which I had been preparing so religiously. My coach will kill me if I don’t get back to training!”

“It seems to me that you overworked your tendons at the knee. Maybe you put too much stress on it at the gym. But don’t worry, we’ll figure out a plan to get you back to winning matches in no time.” Dr Pz’s words assured Olivia and they dived right into treatment.

THE TREATMENT PLAN

Isometric loading
Isotonic loading
Energy storage loading
Kinetic chain strengthening

Later that day,

Dr PZ had just finished her session with Olivia when she spotted her intern sneaking in her fourth cup of coffee for the day.

“No wonder you’re so wired today.” she chuckled.

“Maam didn’t see you there! Are you done with the tendon case?”

“Yeah, it was a pretty straightforward case” Dr replied. “She wanted to be ready for a state-qualifiers. So I gave her a progressive loading plan accordingly”

The intern nodded in understanding, “I recently heard a podcast about the same, on how tendon loading is the way to go for any tendinopathy.”²

“That is it. It might be painful but has a lot of research backing it!” Dr PZ said.

“Dr! Last night was horrible. My pain has only gotten worse” Olivia complained. She was almost in tears, grieving at the thought of her lost career.

Dr PZ said, “Olivia, I think this means that we’ve tried to solve the right issue. We’re making your damaged tendon take more and more weight so that when you go to win your match next time, it won’t let you down.”

“But when will I begin to see results?”

PZ was anticipating this conversation. An athlete like Olivia measured her effort with the number of sets she did at the gym that day or the number of kills she makes at the court.

“Look, at the end of the day, this is your tendon. You can choose what we do with it. If we reduce the intensity of our plan, we may not be able to reach our goal”, said. “If we increase it, we may face a risk of overloading.”

*parts of this scene into these 3 panels*

Olivia got that gut feeling again, right down deep in her bones. This time around, she chose to listen to it. “So, basically, I have to buckle up and show the same amount of restraint and consistency with my treatment as I would a match?”

This made Dr PZ laugh, “Yes, pretty much!”

Also Read: Will we Ever Shift from the Utopian Imagery while Treating Patients?