When I bought this practice from a retiring chiropractor in 2013, there was a "chiropractic poster" on the wall. It had the words "First, Second and Last" on it and pictures of two hands in spine adjusting position, an assortment of medications and then a scalpel in a gloved hand, in that order. The point was, go conservative first, try medication secondly and use surgery as a last resort. I agree with that order of thinking for sure. Today, I want to help with some insight as to why people would skip conservative care and go straight into the latter options. Then obviously convince you to go in the correct order!
I would guess the main reason for going to drugs or surgery first is that some don't know how successfully we fix aches and pains literally from head to toe, and typically in about two to three weeks. If the pain comes from a nerve, muscle or joint, anywhere in the body, we can likely fix it. If the pain is from another source, we know how to tell that too and get you to the right care provider. How do we fix it? We find the exact source of your pain. Like... put our hands on it and we both agree on the exact painful structure. Then we use our hands and the latest tissue healing strategies to fix it.
Maybe you would say, "I guess you might could fix my pain, but won't the problem just come back?" My answer, no way, Jose. After we find the pain generator, I teach each patient what caused their pain. This could be anything from a bad ankle, to poor movement patterns, posture or an underlying nerve entrapment. We fix that too. And most every patient learns a simple stretch or exercise to do on their own to keep it from returning. I might ask, "Won't the pain come back if medication or surgery never address the cause?"
Anyone reading this article who has been through a serious injury would ask this logical question: "If your treatment is so effective, why did my doctor not send me to you first?" That's a great question, and we are trying to inform more general practitioners and orthopedists every day about what we do and the kind of results we get. There are quite a few in our region that already know us and use us! Still skeptical? Give us two weeks and an open mind and we will convince you.
Thank you for reading!
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