Brooke Zylstra

Hear Brooke’s Story

During January of 2016, I developed a terrible pain in my extreme lower back and glute area. It was so painful that I had trouble sitting in class and even standing. With it being the middle of basketball season, my parents knew we had to do something soon in order to keep me moving. My mom had been to Leah Destigter at Hull Physical Therapy for her knee and asked her to take a look at my back.

Leah evaluated me and started doing ultrasound and “hands-on” treatments on my back and hips every other day. Slowly the pain lessened. She also used KT tape to help relax the muscles in my back and prescribed several stretches for me to do before, during, and after basketball practices and games. Leah helped me to be able to play through the pain of my injury. Slowly but surely, the muscles started moving more easily, and I had less and less pain in my back. What a relief to be able to sit through class without my back hurting!

By the beginning of February, I had very little back pain left, and I did not have to miss a basketball game! The ultrasound treatments worked to bring more blood flow to the muscles to heal them, and the stretches helped a lot as we worked to get more flexibility and movement in my back. Leah’s use of KT tape felt so good on and off game days that our family ended up buying a whole roll of KT tape in order to use with future injuries.

The pain that I had feared would leave me sitting out on the bench was gone before the basketball season was over.  In the spring track season, a pulled hamstring muscle from hurdling left me in pain again. A quick phone call to the friendly and helpful staff at Hull Physical Therapy brought me back to the ultrasound machine and more KT taping and stretches with Leah. She also used plastic tools to massage and loosen up my hamstring. I took it easy for a few track practices, but with the help of a great therapy regimen from my physical therapist, I was back for the next track meet.

Leah and the staff at Hull Physical Therapy are very friendly, easy to talk to, knowledgeable, and helpful. I would definitely recommend them to anyone needing advice and help with overcoming their injury!