Why do I need to learn about my condition?
Some people have the misconception that if I can just go to the doctor and professional and get this treated, it will all go away and not be a concern anymore. I would add another question to that, which is why would you need to learn about this so much or why do I need to know so much about my condition? The reason this is a big question to answer is because “patient education” is huge factor when it comes to prognosis or patient outcomes and healing times. These injuries are highly likely going to be a recurring issue and the more you know about it now, the better prepared you will be for your current condition as well as when they return.
Patient education is something that I focus a lot on in my office. One factor of education is learning why the condition started or progressed like it did. If you don’t know what caused the injury, the likelihood is you will continue to do it and make the symptoms worse or just come back again. I will say that most of this would exclude a trauma experience. If you take a bat to the shoulder or leg, you know why you hurt, but this is also not common. Let’s use a shoulder injury as an example. If you sleep on one side and the shoulder becomes irritated, if you continue to sleep on that shoulder any treatment that you will get will be slowing down progress because you go home and sleep on that same painful shoulder. Another example would be back pain after sitting at my desk all day. If you can make some modifications to how you are sitting or taking breaks more often, this can stop the continued irritation and allow your body to heal faster. However, this is the part of the education we like to focus on. By bringing these things to your attention, you now understand how to avoid a lot of the pain that may have been a chronic issue for you.
While we have provided that education and given you feedback on how you can avoid this cycle of continued aggravation of symptoms, we can add in the treatment and your healing time decreases significantly. You may only be coming in for treatment a few times a week or less, but all those hours on the computer or sitting on your phone or even working out poorly are up to you to make good decisions and not make the pain worse. The number one predictor of injury is previous injury. The likelihood of injury is going to go to the area that you have hurt previously. Think of it as the weak link in the chain. The more you know about your condition, the more you will understand how to fix it now and avoid it later. We provide exercises/stretches when patients come in and sometimes those symptoms return and then you have that list of exercises and stretches to fall back on and just start over. Getting the right diagnosis and assessing what is causing the flare ups or the injury itself is a crucial step to knowing that you are on the right path to healing. Unfortunately, just putting your symptoms in Google or an AI system isn’t as accurate without some in person testing.
Tahoe’s Premiere Sports Chiropractor
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