In 2013, I was diagnosed with a torn labrum in my right hip. This manifested as a painful right hip…read moreand right knee. As a personal trainer, I was following a lot of clinicians/fitness experts on social media. One of the individuals who was making a name for himself was Dr. Perry Nickelston, a chiropractor who has a company called "Stop Chasing Pain." The philosophy behind the company's name is that when there is pain in a certain area of the body, it often is the result of dysfunctions that are in seemingly unrelated areas of the body. Using his clinical "expertise", he is supposed to have the detective skills to expose the true culprit. I was in denial that I needed surgery, so I booked a consultation with this internet Guru.
The 1st red flag was that there was no office line. The number on the website is his cell phone. We actually texted to confirm the appointment after the initial call. The 2nd red flag was that I texted him to confirm the night before the appt, only for the aloof doctor to claim that we didn't even have an appt. When I politely challenged him, he then claimed that we did have an appt, but that it was for 12pm- not the 1pm time that we had actually booked. I reluctantly agreed to this new time and changed my zip car reservation to suit his scheduling error. I also had to cancel one of my personal training clients on short notice to accommodate this appt, but I rationalized that my health was the first priority.
When I arrived at his "office," I encountered the 3rd red flag. Apparently Dr. Nickelston operates out of the back room of a grungy gym in Jersey. When I arrived, I announced myself at the front desk as "Dr Nickelston's 12 o'clock", only to be told that he was already in an appt with his 12pm patient. She could not tell me more, because she wasn't his receptionist, but rather the gym's front desk clerk.
Finally, I got to meet the doc at 1:15 when he casually moseyed on out of his office, 75 min late. When I explained the time mix-up and that I had been waiting for over an hour, doing my best to mask my anger, he actually had the gall to joke in response, "I guess I need an assistant."
I bit my lip and headed into the office. I hadn't come this far to not get treated. He put me through a few assessments, including an SFMA (movement assessment), as well as NeuroKinetic Therapy (NKT) manual muscle testing. His diagnosis was that yes, I had a torn labrum, but so do many people and surgery isn't always the answer. The "REAL" problem is that my Obturator Externus and Obturator Internus were facilitated, while my glute max and rectus femoris were inhibited.
His treatment was to give me one of the lamest manual elbow rubs on my right glute that I have ever experienced. He warned, "brace yourself kid, this could hurt a bit." What I didn't tell the doc is that I had seen my share of clinicians over the years and have had lots of soft tissue work done on me. This weak treatment was sloppy, imprecise and ineffective. He was fumbling around in the dark and I question his palpation skills let alone his release techniques.
After he finished the cheap rubdown, he did his magic laser treatment to further "treat the injury". To say I have my questions regarding the efficacy of this laser in helping with anything other than filling the pockets of the company that makes it, or the quacks that (over)charge to use this hunk of junk is an understatement. He then gave me some second rate exercises for the "inhibited glute Max and rectus fem", which honestly, as a personal trainer and strength coach who has trained over 10,000 sessions, I should go back and teach him some better alternatives.
Dr. Perry Nickelston is also a "Master Rock Tape" instructor. This is ironic because when he taped up my knee (another questionable practice), the tape kept falling off. I said, "Doc- it keeps coming off," and he actually denied that it was, reverting to rehearsed script that "Rock Tape adhesive is X times more effective than brand Y", etc. After going back and forth about it a few times, he says "Oh! I forgot to rub it (the tape). That's why!" Glad the "Master" Rock Tape instructor understands how to use the product. Finally, he sprayed my knee and hip with a numbing agent so
I couldn't really tell if I was in pain or not when I left his office. However, by the time I got to my zip car, my knee was in twice as much pain as it had been in for the entire month prior.
I cannot recommend avoiding this man enough, as both a "clinician" & "educator."