Today we're conditioned by the media, and western medicine to manage our health conditions,even the serious ones. This involves keeping the symptoms at bay, but not necessarily addressing the actual condition to heal and resolve it in North Scottsdale AZ. By the time a patient gets to my office, they've actually tried as many as 18 other things before seeing me. Of course, that point they are very frustrated as they think that these other 18 things have not worked. What they really don't understand is that those other "things" were designed to just manage their condition. They were never designed to actually resolve the condition. The sad part is, they weren't ever told that their condition would be only managed. They were led to believe that these "things" were meant to resolve it.

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Pain Management in North Scottsdale AZ

The first and most common, is pain management. It's right in the name of the treatment. It is there to manage the pain not to resolve the condition. Patients who come to me will say that they've had injections or pain medications and they didn't work. Well yes, if the pain did not subside or was not reduced, it didn't work. But if the pain was reduced to be able to perform daily activities, then it did work as a temporary solution until the condition was resolved by other methods. Furthermore, if the pain was reduced and gave you a false sense of security, it may have actually worsened the condition. Pain is our defense mechanism for the body to tell us something is wrong. This way maybe we won't continue to do more harm. Think of the engine light going on in the car. If the mechanic just turned it off, there could be severe damage done to the car. In many cases, I find that at the point of pain management, the condition may not have needed surgical intervention. After a considerable amount of time on pain management, the patient has now pushed their body so much, that they have required surgical intervention. I find at that point the patient is confused and very disappointed as most originally chose pain management over surgery. And then having to have it at the end anyway, is very dissapointing.

A surprising "thing" people try is stretching and exercise. Yes this is very important in most treatment programs for musculoskeletal conditions, however in very rare cases will this resolve the actual condition. Herniated discs, stenosis, and other serious spinal conditions will not be entirely resolved by stretching. It is an adjunct to corrective care.

I find that over the last 28 years in my practice, patients will associate reduction of pain with their condition being resolved. The absence of pain is not necessarily indicative of the condition being resolved. Pain is the last thing to appear and the first thing to go away. In my practice, I am always re-examining and evaluating the patient as I am treating. In some cases there is a formal re-examination, but in most of the cases I am doing that as I go along. For any condition not just musculoskeletal, your physician should reevaluate after a couple of weeks. This way you are not getting treatments to manage a condition for weeks, months, or even years without knowing if the condition has been resolved. I feel this does quite an injustice to the patient as a result.

The condition didn't happen overnight in many cases. Unless you had a physical trauma that caused it at one moment. In most chronic cases, the condition has worsened over time. Although there was no pain in the beginning, the condition was there. If you get anything out of this article, please understand that once again, pain is not indicative of the condition being there. It was there a long time ago and you possibly managed it and worked through it. After a specific amount of time in a treatment program, I stop looking at the pain only. We concentrate on pain relief in the very beginning, to have the patient get back to more normal activities. If function is not restored, the pain will continue to return. The character, intensity, location and other nuances of the pain may change. This is a good sign that we're getting to the root cause. Communication is also very important. When I ask patients how they are doing when they walk in, and they say good, I need to know why it is good, how the pain has changed, with character intensity and more. Being as specific as you can be helps doctors like me do a better job for you.

Getting to the root cause of your pain or other conditions is very important. There is a time and place for management of a condition but if that's all you are doing you are not doing something that is helping to resolve the condition. If you are ready to resolve what is going on in your body right now, please call my office for a complimentary consultation.

Also, please remember that I write 2 articles per month. We all only receive one per month in the mail, and if you'd like to read the others, please visit my website at the bottom of this article.

For any questions regarding my articles, please email me at DrLeisa@CaringPainRelief.com

Leisa-Marie Grgula. DC

Chiropractic Physician

Accurate Care Medical Wellness Center

18261 N. Pima Rd. Ste. #115

(480) 584-3955

www.CaringPainRelief.com