A Long Day I officially eclipsed my longest work day ever. Started seeing patients at 7:30 am and finished training my last client at 10 pm. So exhausting, but the bright side is my new schedule prevents me from waking up that early ever again! Hooray for sleeping in…sort of. I figured while I had some time in the airport before my next course, I would write a little something about a patient I evaluated right before my lunch break on this long day. Needless to say, I didn’t get much of a break. Her Story This lovely lady is a nurse with a history of chronic left hip pain. She has predominately been treated surgically via labral repairs and muscle reattachment. Her most recent symptom exacerbation involved putting on her socks about a month prior. She heard a pop as she bent over and could not walk. She initially saw two ortho docs. One specializes in total hips, the other in scopes. Since she was not appropriate for a total hip, this doc referred this lady to his associate. After some imaging was done, she found out that she could not have surgery because she had several muscle tears. Or in the language that the doctor used: “I have nothing to work with. Your hip is shredded up like cheese.” This lady knew no other treatment but surgery, and hearing this news was devastating for her. Thoughts of a brutish life and an end to her fulfilling job flooded
Read MoreTag: neuroscience
Explain Pain Section 6: Management Essentials
This is a summary of section 6 of “Explain Pain” by David Butler and Lorimer Moseley. Management 101 The most important thing you can understand is that no one has the answer for all pains. Pain is entirely individualistic, hence requiring different answers. There are several strategies which one can undertake to triumph over pain. Tool 1: Education Knowing how pain works is one of the most important components to overcoming pain. Instead of no pain, no gain, the authors like to use “know pain, or no gain.” Understanding pain is essential for squashing fear of pain, which leads best toward the road to recovery. Here are some important concepts to be known about explaining pain. Anyone can understand pain physiology. Learning about pain physiology reduces pain’s threat value. Combining pain education with movement approaches will increase physical capacity, reduce pain, and improve quality of life. Tool 2: Hurt ≠ Harm It is important to understand that when someone feels pain it does not equate with damage. The same can be said with recurring pains. These pain types are often ways to prevent you from making the same mistake twice. If your brain sees similar cues that were present with a previous injury, the brain may make you experience pain as a way to check on you and make sure you are okay. Just because hurt does not mean harm does not mean you can get crazy though. Because the nervous system is trying to protect you, it will take
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