Hey, my name is Nick Eccles, and this is my story.

I grew up in a small town outside of New York City. I picked up tennis at a young age and was passionate about the game. There was something magical about the rhythm of the rally and the satisfying sound of a perfectly struck ball that kept me coming back to the court every day.

Unfortunately I had a serious lower back injury playing tennis that forced me to stop playing competitively and when it first happened I was actually paralyzed from my left hip down for several hours and didn’t know if I’d even be able to walk again. I was honestly terrified and in agony. It was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt.

Thankfully I was able to walk to my school’s health services the next day, but they misdiagnosed me and told me to go to PT. I saw multiple PTs for months in Boston, but was still having nerve pain, tension, and anxiety each day. I finally went home to NY and had some surgeons telling me I needed back surgery which I thought was way too risky and had heard awful stories from many family friends.

I must have seen over 20 different PTs and numerous specialists, pain management, neurologists you name it, but the trouble is not many people know how to truly fix chronic pain unless they’ve had it themselves. I took different medications and tried chiropractors/acupuncture, but even when I got pain relief it was only temporary and essentially I discovered that there was this major problem with the healthcare industry with regards to chronic pain and how to treat it or take care of it.

I realized that my injury was the first domino, but I also had to deal with the daily cycle of mental/emotional stress, bad posture, diet, brain fog, sleeping, inflammation which chronic pain negatively impacts. Bouncing around physios who gave me the wrong advice was not only tiring but expensive. And having doctors and PTs telling you to just find new hobbies is very depressing as an athletic guy in his 20s.

However, my dad told me about how his shoulder was bothering him for months, and he came to Dr. Cha for one visit, and walked out completely pain-free. I was pretty skeptical because I had tried so many different physical therapy clinics before which either made me feel the same or worse off after I left. It seemed like false hope but I didn’t have any other options and wanted to avoid surgery at all costs.

So I decided to give Cha Physical Therapy a shot.

Immediately after the first session I felt months of built up tension and chronic pain release. It was different from any other PT Clinic I had been to before, where they hook you up to fancy equipment or give you standard exercises that they promise will heal your pain “eventually.” Dr. Cha gave me exercises, but his manual myofascial release was amazing and I almost cried tears of relief because I have never experienced that much pain relief before. Especially after having back pain every day for a long period of time, it felt like I was a whole new person with a bright pain-free future ahead of me.

Now I am back to playing sports without back surgery and no longer have nerve pain each day–all thanks to Dr. Cha.

If you have an injury or want to avoid surgery, I highly recommend you try one session. It has truly changed my life.