[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/10\/matts-story-physical-therapy\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/10\/matts-story-physical-therapy\/","headline":"Matt\u2019s Story: Physical Therapy for Severe Nerve Pain","name":"Matt\u2019s Story: Physical Therapy for Severe Nerve Pain","description":"

Matt suffered from a rare condition that caused severe nerve pain. Working with Hashim Ahmed, DPT, he's returning to coaching and playing volleyball.<\/p>","datePublished":"2025-10-14","dateModified":"2026-01-16","author":{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/rehab","name":"UPMC Rehabilitation Institute","url":"https:\/\/www.upmc.com\/services\/rehab","sameAs":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/upmc-rehabilitation-institute\/","parentOrganization":"UPMC"},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"UPMC HealthBeat","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/UPMC-HealthBeat-Logo.png","width":600,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-479997178-e1760379779334.jpg","url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-479997178-e1760379779334.jpg","height":866,"width":2000},"url":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/10\/matts-story-physical-therapy\/","about":["Health Topics A-Z","Rehabilitation"],"wordCount":1599,"articleBody":"Volleyball has shaped many aspects of Matt Shea’s life as both a player and a coach. Matt is a former collegiate assistant coach who now coaches at the high school and club level and plays competitively.However, a rare medical condition put his whole life \u2014 including volleyball \u2014 on hold for two years. As he dealt with painful nerve symptoms throughout his body, Matt had to stop working, coaching, and playing. He became couchbound, dealing with shooting pains and seized muscles.After beginning intravenous treatments that helped lessen his symptoms, Matt started seeing Hashim Ahmed, DPT, physical therapist, UPMC Rehabilitation Institute: Wexford, Village at Pine.Since he started working with Hashim in May 2024, Matt has resumed coaching and hopes to resume playing competitively. He credits Hashim and his staff for helping him get there.\u201cI don’t think I could have been in better hands,\u201d says Matt, 39, of Pittsburgh. \u201cI have such trust in him. He is an amazing person and an amazing physical therapist. That whole office really took such good care of me.\u201cIt was life-changing. I don’t know what I would have been without them.\u201dAn Unexplained IllnessMatt\u2019s two-year medical odyssey began with a numb chin. He woke up with one in August 2023, the day after playing sand volleyball with his friends.When the numbness didn\u2019t go away within a few hours, Matt went to the hospital. He underwent imaging and other testing for stroke, lesions, or other abnormalities that could\u2019ve caused his symptoms. However, the tests found nothing.Over the ensuing three months, Matt’s symptoms grew worse.\u201cI was starting to have lots of pains outside of headache in my body,\u201d he says. \u201cI was starting to have shooting pains down my arms and legs, like someone was stabbing me.\u201dMatt was seeing a neurologist for his condition and was on nerve blockers. He also saw various other specialists, had two lumbar punctures, and spent time in the hospital.But the mystery remained, and Matt’s condition continued to deteriorate. His hands seized up, as did his calf. He could no longer work, spending most of his time on his couch as he dealt with debilitating pain. He struggled to sleep and also developed severe depression and anxiety.\u201cIt was so stressful. It was so depressing,\u201d Matt says. \u201cWe kept getting our hopes up, but we\u2019re seeing all these different people, (and) they just couldn’t figure out what was wrong.\u201cThey checked off everything inside the box that would be normal or semi-normal, and we realized it was definitely outside the box.\u201dMatt\u2019s wife works in the University of Pittsburgh Department of Surgery. She and her colleagues were also investigating potential causes of Matt’s symptoms and possible treatments. They came across intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), a treatment made from human antibodies from blood donors. IVIG can treat many different conditions.They referred Matt to Fang Sun, MD, a neuromuscular specialist at UPMC Neurological Institute. She diagnosed him with inflammatory polyneuropathy, a condition in which the immune system attacks the nervous system.Dr. Sun was \u201camazing,\u201d Matt says. She recommended that he begin the IVIG treatment right away.\u201cAfter what felt like going through an endless roulette of providers with no solutions, meeting Dr. Sun was a breakthrough,\u201d Matt says. \u201cShe immediately had ideas about what was going on and proposed\u00a0the care plan that would end up saving me. For the first time, I had hope.\u201dMatt began IVIG treatment in December 2023, receiving infusions every three weeks to reset his immune system.\u201cAt this point, we were willing to try anything,\u201d Matt says. \u201cI had no quality of life at this point. I was basically couchbound.\u201dThe IVIG side effects felt like \u201cextreme flu,\u201d Matt says. He also developed brain swelling, a rare complication, and had to take high-dose steroids to counteract it.But he says he also started noticing improvements with his symptoms within a month of starting IVIG.\u201cAfter the second treatment, after a few days, my right calf unlocked \u2014 which was insane,\u201d Matt says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to explain because it was a seized muscle for five months.\u201dHis hands also began to unlock. After four treatments, the numbness in his chin went away.\u201cThat was maybe not huge medically, but (it was) huge mentally, when that went away,\u201d he says.Beginning the Recovery ProcessAfter several months on IVIG, Matt was ready to start building his body back up. He was ready to start walking and moving again.His wife had worked with Hashim previously for physical therapy. She contacted him about working with Matt.Although Hashim had never worked with a patient with Matt’s condition before, he agreed to help.\u201cThe principles of his issues were fairly common,\u201d Hashim says. \u201cHe had balance issues. He had pain with activity. He had weakness.\u201cIt just had to be individually tailored to his responses and how he was presenting that specific day.\u201dMatt first met Hashim in May 2024.\u201cHe looked like somebody who was really just going through it physically,\u201d Hashim says. “But mentally, despite what he was going through and the level of his function prior to being knocked down so far, the amount of positivity and excitement he had for rehab so he could start being active and progress his function, that’s what really struck me.\u201cHe could easily have been significantly depressed, like he didn’t even want to get out of bed. But every day, even from the first day, he was just so ecstatic to get started and start moving.\u201dBecause Matt had been dealing with his symptoms for so long, the rehab had to start slowly, with simple bed exercises. He began working with Hashim three days a week.Matt’s condition also could cause flare-ups of pain without warning. That meant Hashim had to adapt the physical therapy regimen and even cut sessions short if necessary. He also stayed in constant contact with Dr. Sun about Matt\u2019s progress.\u201cThe big thing about this issue is, basically, you have to reset every nerve connection,\u201d Matt says. \u201cSo, I had to do repeat processes that hurt myself. As you reset, it\u2019s very painful. We slowly had to keep resetting all these processes as we were going.\u201cWe had to learn how to push me to a certain point where we wouldn\u2019t cause flare-ups.\u201dMatt says Hashim was incredibly supportive throughout the process.\u201cIt was such a good atmosphere,\u201d he says. \u201cSuper positive, super encouraging, but still challenging. I feel he pushed me as fast as I could have been pushed.\u201dTurning the CornerMatt always had a goal of returning to the volleyball court \u2014 both as a coach and player.\u201cWhen a patient has a goal, a patient has a desire that gives us clear direction on what to do and where to take them,\u201d Hashim says.Several months into physical therapy, Matt was now working with Hashim twice a week. He had progressed from bed exercises to cardio and body conditioning. He started noticing improvements in his day-to-day life, such as moving better around his house, cooking, and going to the grocery store.\u201cWe decided, \u2018All right, let’s push,\u2019\u201d Matt says.Hashim increased Matt’s therapy regimen to include more athletic activities, such as weight lifting, agility exercises, and jumping. The idea was to incorporate muscle groups beneficial for volleyball.Matt also began peppering exercises \u2014 passing, setting, and hitting the ball back and forth with another member of his physical therapy team. He also started as an assistant girls\u2019 volleyball coach at a Pittsburgh high school.\u201cTo take somebody who was nearly bedridden to even the beginnings of that was very encouraging,\u201d Hashim says. \u201cThat was very eye-opening and astonishing for the whole team because everybody on my entire staff was following him, watching him, and conversing with him.\u201cAnd so, for all of us to see that level of progression was awesome.\u201dGetting Back to 100%Two years after his symptoms began, Matt’s life is returning to normal. He hasn’t experienced a shooting, stabbing pain in several months and will soon finish the IVIG infusions.Matt is hoping to return to work. Before his symptoms began, he worked in nonprofit administration and hopes to get back to it.He\u2019s still an assistant for a Pittsburgh high school girls\u2019 volleyball team, but he can become more active this year.\u201cI always have worked with youth development and athletics,\u201d he says. \u201cGetting back to it, teaching and coaching, is what I love.\u201cAnd it surprises the girls because now I’ll start playing with them. They\u2019re just baffled because last year, it was more just me hobbling around and running drills, not playing in drills.\u201dHis next goal is to return to playing in competitive sand volleyball tournaments. Before his medical condition arose, Matt frequently competed against college-age players in tournaments. He hopes to get back to that level.Matt\u2019s working with Hashim once a week to reach that goal.\u201cI always say that I got into this profession because I wanted to be a part of my patients\u2019 progress and their success,\u201d Hashim says. \u201cI wanted to be integral in that. I wanted to share in that with them. And so, when he gets back to where he wants to be, really, for any patient, that’s the greatest accomplishment that you can have for anybody.\u201cWe’re not quite there yet with Matt, but I have no doubt that he’s going to get there.\u201dSources"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2025","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/\/10\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Matt\u2019s Story: Physical Therapy for Severe Nerve Pain","item":"https:\/\/share-dev.upmc.com\/2025\/10\/matts-story-physical-therapy\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]