Let's get started. I wanted to do this blog to let those suffering in pain know, as a physician, I know what they are going through. After 10 years of treating and meeting all kinds of people hurting and desperate for results, I feel that I have a huge understanding of the great big fat holes and cracks in the medical system that patients fall through. They have become major pet peeves that those other doctors (M.D.'s) so locked and bound by narrow training do not see. There are some who genuinely care and help their patients search for results, but I am sorely disappointed by the vast, unbounded lack of intellectual honesty in a great proportion of the physicians I meet. After all, looking from their perspective, after 4 years of college, 4 years medical school, between 3-4 years of training and 1-3 years of additional subspecialty training, (Not to mention a greater than $200K in school debt, financial, personal and family delays), it is very hard to give up what you know (even though in the back of your head, that nagging feeling is that it is flawed).
I was trained as a pediatrician. In my last year in training, I was so excited. I was going to do things differently, get results, and write about my pediatrics experience. One day someone stopped me and asked for help by the name of Scott. He was in a car accident 1 month prior and was in pain. While stopped at an intersection, a drunk driver plowed into his car. Immediately he got the police report then went to the ER, luckily no broken bones. Eventually he wakes up to find that he cannot turn his head more then 45 degrees in either direction. Scott worked with my husband and he knew that I was a physician. He had seen his Primary Care Provider (PCP),with no help there. This person did not want to go to physical therapy (which had previously yanked on his legs to rehabilitate a bad left knee under the code of "no pain, no gain." [this is another major pet peeve, to be saved for a later post]). He did not trust chiropractors (another future lengthy post). I told him, find a D.O., call and ask if they did 100% Osteopathic Manipulation Treatment (OMT = future post). He refused. He wanted a direct referral; it was a trust issue with him. At the time I did not operate in this system and did not know anyone directly. After enough haranguing, I finally said, "OK, fine, I'll see you, but if I can't help you I won't charge you, if I do help you, then I'm really going to charge you!"
I was trained as a pediatrician. In my last year in training, I was so excited. I was going to do things differently, get results, and write about my pediatrics experience. One day someone stopped me and asked for help by the name of Scott. He was in a car accident 1 month prior and was in pain. While stopped at an intersection, a drunk driver plowed into his car. Immediately he got the police report then went to the ER, luckily no broken bones. Eventually he wakes up to find that he cannot turn his head more then 45 degrees in either direction. Scott worked with my husband and he knew that I was a physician. He had seen his Primary Care Provider (PCP),with no help there. This person did not want to go to physical therapy (which had previously yanked on his legs to rehabilitate a bad left knee under the code of "no pain, no gain." [this is another major pet peeve, to be saved for a later post]). He did not trust chiropractors (another future lengthy post). I told him, find a D.O., call and ask if they did 100% Osteopathic Manipulation Treatment (OMT = future post). He refused. He wanted a direct referral; it was a trust issue with him. At the time I did not operate in this system and did not know anyone directly. After enough haranguing, I finally said, "OK, fine, I'll see you, but if I can't help you I won't charge you, if I do help you, then I'm really going to charge you!"
It took 2 painless visits, each session only 45 minutes, 1 month apart for the neck. He called me for the 3rd visit to clean up the right shoulder which had been frozen for 8 years. This dated back 10 years from playing collegiate sports. Three years after his initial treatment he called me up and ask if I remembered that he had a bad knee. "Of course I remember" I said. It was the knee he would not let me touch because, at the time, he did not trust me. It had been operated on 3 times (3 seems to be the magic number of patients with pain - they allow surgeons to cut into them, somehow believing these surgeons that cutting and the subsequent scarring is miraculously going to resolve their pain [yes, another post for another time]). Needless to say, Scott and I now have a very good understanding of his knee. We agree now that the first surgery may have been necessary; but the 2nd and 3rd probably did not. How did we reach that conclusion? Very easily. It's common sense. When he comes in with knee pain and swelling, I work locally at the knee. If no changes occur then the problem is not in the knee. On multiple occasions, just treating and stabilizing the ankle results in immediate resolution of swelling and pain. When Scott comes in, I never let him leave without checking the ankle. Always.
It has been quite a journey for the both of us. Thanks Scott for your persistence.
For those of you still searching, keep searching, and keep reading. I will continue to blog my experiences and insights, which a good portion of the world suffering will recognize and yet common doctors will not acknowledge.
No comments:
Post a Comment