Metrics matter in pain relief.
Why this matters:
Is it reasonable to expect feeling better after the first visit? If you ask the majority of physical therapists, chiropractors, and other healers, they’ll often say no. Let’s break that down. Both patients and healers will look at recovery as a binary concept… Pain or no pain? Relief is more of a sliding scale; there will be degrees of change. In order for us to measure progress, we need a few things: an established baseline AND a progress update. The best way to do this is to be as descriptive as you can in regards to the pain that you’re feeling.
Pain with sitting? How long can you sit before your pain comes on?
Pain with walking? How long can you walk before feeling your pain?
Pain with picking things up from the floor? Is there a difference between lifting a pencil versus lifting your child?
Follow up questions are key to understanding what exercises/stretches you need, but also HOW you’ll recover.
Action steps:
Look at your baseline (when you first started your pain journey). What could you do/not do? Look at yourself now. What degrees of change have you noticed? Has the pain decreased in intensity? Size? Have you been able to tolerate more activity before the onset of pain?
Ask questions.Do you need help with recovery? Check out our awesome new Rehab-By-Text program (aka “The patient advocate program”) We’ll start with a free 30 minute call, come up with a solution together and provide the support you need (all for less than $27 per week). You can check it out here.
