Have you experienced the feeling of not knowing who to ask for help when dealing with pain?
This is a common experience and conversations I’ve been having in the clinic lately made me think that you might find this helpful for you or someone you know.
I had a new patient in my clinic just the other day, who had tried many things to try to help with back pain. She was there with her son for one of our complimentary consultations. At the end of our consultation she was excited to move forward and let me know she had another consultation elsewhere with a different type of provider and would be picking between the two. My response to her was, “why not both?”
The way I think about this is that if she finds two great providers who approach her issue from different angles, wouldn’t this be better? I’ve always approached working with other providers and professionals with an open mind, and taken care to ensure that those that I do work with are quality. In conversations that I have with some of my patients, it’s clear that there are other providers who do not share that philosophy, and some of my patients have been chastised by their providers for seeking help outside of themselves. It’s almost a “God Complex” type of situation.
There are times that you should limit the number of “cooks in the kitchen,” and that’s when we are trying to limit the number of variables so that we can make conclusions and decisions about what’s going on, what’s helping, and what’s not helping. Once that path is clear however, other types of practitioners may be a great addition to someone’s care while they are seeing us for physical therapy.
It reminds me of when I was a personal trainer, and my clients would go to an MD to ask them about a certain issue that they were having, and the MD would tell them the first thing to do was stop exercising until it got better. Spoiler alert, this hardly ever works! And even if it does, it becomes harder to start back up on an exercise routine after being inactive for so long. It always seemed to me that the correct answer should have been “here are the things you can STILL do, and here are a few things to avoid.”
For example: We have a new patient in our office who just had shoulder surgery. He’s itching to get active, but he was told to do nothing for 6 weeks. My thoughts? He has legs…let’s work those! Why don’t we work to get him up and active which will only help speed his recovery, reduce stress and anxiety, and give him a sense that he’s being proactive. If we can allow his shoulder to recover WHILE seeing these other benefits, isn’t this what’s truly best?
Healthcare is not sequential, it doesn’t need to go in a step by step order, and if we get caught up in that line of thinking, it may take longer to ever get anything done. You’ve likely heard of or experienced going to an MD, being told to rest or take pills and if it doesn’t get better, THEN you get an x-ray, THEN you get an MRI, THEN you get a prescription to physical therapy… there went 3 months of your life.
I believe in having a healthcare TEAM around an individual that is focused on keeping you active, mobile, and confident that you can live your life without fearing that injury is around the corner. I want to be able to be a resource for you, and be able to help you get back in the game quickly if something goes wrong. That’s why we’ve brought therapeutic massage into the practice. We’ll be able to communicate directly with our massage therapist about your needs, ensuring that your massages deliver maximal value.
There are so many benefits to massage. Among them we’ll be able to get you faster pain relief, help you achieve longer lasting outcomes, and prevent injury from occurring. You shouldn’t have to choose either or, when the right answer to get the outcomes you want for your life, could be both.
In addition to adding massage to our services we are always seeking other like-minded practitioners. If you have another provider we should meet, who shares our philosophy, we would love an introduction.
You can connect us with them via email at info@thedoctorsofpt.com
