When you are looking for a chiropractor, you often know something is wrong, but you aren’t sure exactly what it is and how it can be fixed.
Most patients find themselves thinking: “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I feel like something is going on”. They can tell something is not working right in their back and they want to do something before it gets worse. For the next few blog posts, I’ll be sharing some stories of patients of River Ridge Chiropractic (all names have been changed) and how they were helped.
The problem with pain is that it is difficult to diagnose. I met a new patient, Steve, earlier this year. Steve had pain in his back. He went to a general MD who recommended him to an orthopedic surgeon. The surgeon said they could not help him so they gave him a prescription. Pain is not diagnosable, it is a symptom. If you don’t fit into the box of a fracture, tumor or herniation, all a medical doctor will typically do is give you pain meds because there isn’t something wrong enough to allow them to justify surgery.
The doctors gave Steve a lifetime subscription of Vicodin at 22 years old. The underlying assumption seemed to be: “We’re never going to fix this problem, so take pain killers for the rest of your life”. Steve was unhappy with solution, as he was concerned about being addicted to pain medication for the rest of his life.
The medical doctor who prescribed the medication said not to go to a chiropractor. In this case, we aren’t critical of the medical doctor’s approach, but this was not the right approach for this patient.
A close friend of Steve recommended River Ridge Chiropractic. Together Steve and I developed a treatment plan including acupuncture, chiropractic and spinal decompression.
Steve wanted to avoid becoming addicted to pain medication, and now he is off all pharmaceutical meds.
Questions or comments? Put them here, email me at drbart@bellsouth.net or post on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RiverRidgeChiro
