I preach and preach about creating 0-2 pain levels for healing. As we all deal with injuries, some are out of our control, and others we do have some control over. No matter what is said to start this activity, or that activity, do this, or do that, so much hangs on the simple fact of pain. We must let pain be our guide at times. At times, we push through, but mostly we honor and keep the pain between 0-2.
Today, a young gal came in for a second opinion. She hurt her left heel. She was placed in the boot to create a healing environment. The first mistake, she never felt any relief day after day in the boot, it hurt just the same, but for 2 months the boot was going to heal something. The magical 8 weeks guaranteed to heal did not happen. When the boot came off, and the pain intense, the doctor said to go back and do everything because that 8 weeks had to have healed. The patient was mystified, explaining all along that the boot had not helped, so mistake number two, try another treatment. The patient then came in for 10 laser treatments. Each laser treatment first caused more pain for 2 hours, but then the original pain was back. No time in the 10 treatments was there any sign of improvement.
Mistake number 3, and last for this doc, when you are not helping, and you forgot that referring for opinions is a good thing, you offer surgery to try to fix things.
The moral is simple: Spend the early days of treatment to create that 0-2 pain level. If the pain is not improving with standard treatment, you probably are not treating the right thing (which on looking at the original MRI I believe was the case). I am getting a new MRI now that 5 months have pasted to see what is going on.
This is such a common story for so many people because their practitioners fails to consider other areas as causes or send them to someone else, even a PT, to take an alternate look.
ReplyDeleteHope you can help her Dr. Blake.