She said that her lower back pain began when she was in high school, and her right hand was weak in the last two fingers she was diagnosed by a neurologist who used needles to test for how her nerves functioned. She also noted bouts of dizziness that have become more frequent.
Forget conventional thinking, this requires math to solve this patient’s problems.
Many of our patients have endured endless testing, specialist referrals, and protocoled therapies that don’t work. Often, years later, the patient will visit our chiropractic office with many chronic complaints that appear to be worsening over time. Worse, this patient was under 30, with no history of trauma, yet she is worsening over time, desperate to find someone to help.
Many of us already know someone like this who needs to be properly evaluated with a thorough history and evaluation.
In the case of this patient, whose insurance did not cover her out-of-state, she decided to pay for the visit on her own after her mom visited us her first time and saw marked improvements in her misdiagnosed shoulder and hip problems.
Her history included back pain, foot, knee, and ankle complaints, mid back pain, and these problems had been manifesting for 10 years, since high school. Now in her mid 20’s, she was tall which suggests to me she had a rough time with growth spurts. She admitted that she stopped growing around the age of 13 which is about when her back problems began.
Our evaluation began with her standing in front of me and having her overall posture evaluated. The compensations from the feet up were obvious as her right shoulder rolled forward when either standing or sitting indicating flat feet. As I have often told patients, her distorted posture was in the shape of DNA.
Visually, her problems were easy to see. Could her neurologist see this or was the doctor not trained to see it? Was her pediatrician trained to see it? Were her other providers trained to see it?
The left flat foot had caused compensations in her pelvis, and upper body, and our range of motion tests showed how the lower body affected the upper body and even her grip.
We all adapt except we do not always adapt well. She is an example of poor adaptation aggravated by growth spurts resulting in tight fascia in the legs, flexibility issues, balance issues, and even problems in the patient’s right arm, hand, and shoulder.
The math behind her problems includes a Left flat foot + pelvis distortion + knocked knees + a distorted upper body + a right shoulder that leans forward reducing the rotation in the right arm which + affected her grip strength + reduced shoulder mobility + reduced neck mobility.
When doctors don’t know or do not perform a proper holistic history of the patient, and a functional exam, they test. Chiropractors run tests also when they do not know. When you perform a better evaluation, we test less.
Solving the problem requires holistic thinking and a simple process of elimination way of thinking.
Treatment included myofascial release to the fascia in the abdomen, lower back, and legs, and in fascia along the spine.
She was given off-the-shelf foot orthotics to level her pelvis and improve how she moved and functioned.
A spinal adjustment was performed to further improve how she moved.
After her first treatment, she was able to squat better, bend and touch her toes better, had improved ranges of motion in both shoulders, and a markedly improved right grip strength.
Why think chiropractic first
The over-specialized model has many providers who will look at you through their specialty, but in this woman’s case, the spinal distortions were obvious if you had looked at the patient, how they stood, how they walked and moved. Missing the visuals behind why we hurt has become a feature of our healthcare system, rather than errors made. If you cannot connect the dots or do the math behind chronic pain, you are not going to help the patient solve their problem.
Patients do not require more tests, more drugs, or more specialists. They require a primary care approach to understand why they hurt. Chiropractic physicians are primary care for the musculoskeletal system.
In less than 45 minutes, the patient understood their problems, their causes, and how to help themselves using chiropractic healthcare without tests, drugs or invasive procedures, or additional specialist visits.
Need to get out of pain? Keep it simple and think chiropractic first. Book online today.