Just two days before hopping on an eight-hour flight to kick off a vacation, Luke Perkins’ back went out. The pain was debilitating, he said, to the point where he’d never be able to sit on a plane for a long period of time. He needed help, and he needed it quickly.
Enter Marc Rubenstein, DPT, co-founder and physical therapist at Jersey Physical Therapy.
“I thought I was going to be paralyzed for life, the pain was so bad. I didn’t think I would ever get better,” said Perkins, a project manager in engineering at Schlumberger-Princeton Technology Center in Princeton Junction. “But Marc said not to worry … that this thing is a common occurrence. My disc was bulging out of place, and it was pinching some nerves.”
Rubenstein applied mobilization to the soft tissue and the joints in Perkins’ lower back. He showed Perkins some exercises to do during his trip and gave him a book, “Treat Your Own Back” by Robin McKenzie, to help him understand and overcome the pain he was experiencing. “He kind of saved me right then and there,” Perkins said.