"I'm really about 100% in my tennis game after 4 and 1/2 months of having both hips replaced."
What issues were you dealing with and how long were you dealing with them before you found Cornerstone Health?
My name’s Robert Orenstein and I first came here about four years ago. I suffered a stress fracture in my left foot playing soccer outdoors. Had a boot on for about six to eight weeks I think, and instead of going for conventional physical therapy I was in a group of professional people that Ben Fergus was in and I asked him if he could do the rehab and he said, “Yes”. So I came in and he did the rehab on the foot but he also noticed some lingering issues with previous sports injuries, a torn meniscus, which is the right knee and a torn rotator cuff, which is the right shoulder. Both of which were from tennis. Those had been rehabbed through conventional physical therapy but he noticed there were some issues. He developed a program not just to do the foot but to take care of these other lingering issues. What I found great about, about this whole process is that in conventional physical therapy you need a prescription for just one body part. Dr. Fergus was able to really deal with all of those issues through a number of sessions and he resolved them.
A lot of people think there isn’t a solution to their pain. Did you feel this way before coming to Cornerstone Health?
No, actually not. You know, a lot of times the word chiropractor conjures up somebody’s gonna crack your spine and that’s it and I actually visited those people in the past but it became pretty clear that Dr. Fergus goes beyond that whole conversation about what’s wrong with your spine as the source of your issues. I know that, as I mentioned before I had multiple sports issues and he was able to treat those through physical therapy modalities and other training and exercise programs including one exercise he developed for me four years ago which I still use every day which is really cool and it’s really kept me quite healthy. I recently, about four and a half months ago, I had both hips replaced. I went through conventional physical therapy and I called Ben and I said, “When I’m done with them “I’m gonna come in and see you.” So, now we’re getting sort of the advanced approach to, not just the hips but really the whole thing again.
How long have you been coming to Cornerstone Health and what improvements have you seen?
The situation four years ago with the broken foot, the fact that after about six months we resolved those incomplete issues was really important to me. I continued to play soccer. I’m in my sixties and I continued to play soccer and tennis after that. But I developed arthritis in my right hip. It actually is a lingering thing, which he’d also noticed when I first came in but the only solution for that is a hip replacement and I put that off until the pain got to be too bad last summer and I finally went to see an orthopedic surgeon. A few months ago I actually decided to do both hips at the same time and right now what we’re doing is sort of this advanced approach to sort of beyond physical therapy but I’m back to playing tennis four days a week. I may have mentioned before, I played yesterday and I played Saturday. I did a 17 mile bike ride. I’m really about a hundred percent in my tennis game after four and a half months of having both hips replaced. The exercises we’re doing here are really finding things that were handled by physical therapy so we’re getting me to an advanced level.
How is Cornerstone Health different from the other clinics you've experienced?
Well again, it’s that holistic approach. We have done a lot of different types of therapies. I don’t want to say what they are ’cause I’ll probably get them wrong exactly but it’s really a way to isolate a particular muscle in a very precise way and then, and work it through a number of different approaches. That’s often difficult to get if you go just to a guy who’s just a chiropractor and he’s adjusting your spine he’s not touching those muscles. If you go to an acupuncturist and I, see my daughter is an acupuncturist, she does great with that but she doesn’t do the, you know, the manipulation of the muscles. If you go to a physical therapist they get a prescription for one body part and that’s the only body part that they work. There’s no holistic approach there. As I mentioned, I’m an athlete and as an athlete I can’t just have two good hips and then have other body parts not functioning. It’s a prescription for further injury so the holistic approach here is really extraordinary.
What would you say to someone that may be hesitant about coming to Cornerstone Health for treatment?
Well, I would tell them to call their health insurance company and see if it’ll get paid for by their health insurance ’cause a lot of time people are concerned about the cost. If they’re covered under whatever coding it might be, I’d say physical therapy or what have you. Let’s say they have a prescription for physical therapy, they should come in and have it done here because they’re gonna find more solutions to more problems that weren’t going to be addressed otherwise. You know, it’s really terrific and I knew when I had my hips replaced I’d be back here at some point and I’m glad I’m, I’m here so thank you.
