Treating People

This post is going to be a bit of a straight shooter but what I want to do is outline some of my own personal struggles as of late. I've been in a bit of a funk lately and while I usually keep my feelings to myself, perhaps a diary or journal type of post may help turn things around.

Let me put it bluntly,

Treating body parts, that's easy. Treating people, not so much.

Coming out of school, I had it easy. All I really needed to do was have a patient or athlete in front of me and voila, work some magic. Release this muscle, strengthen that kinetic chain, stabilize the core, you know...the easy stuff.

But now that I've invested so much time, effort and Angela's money into understanding what it truly takes to effectively work as a health care provider, boy has managing patients become even more difficult.

This is my struggle.

As a health care provider, the majority of people who come into the clinic do so for the simple reason that they are experiencing pain. Some with a little discomfort but many, experiencing significant pain.

And unfortunately, working with people who experience pain, isn't easy. It really isn't. Anyone who tells you it is is lying.

Because for those of you who have studied - and I mean REALLY studied - the neuroscience of pain, you will know that this isn't a piece of cake.

Again, my struggle.

I have come to realize that those who move well and move often are more likely to bounce back and "recover" from their injuries relatively quickly. I have also come to realize that those who possess excellent cognitive integrity rarely allow their experiences of pain to interfere with their daily lives. Now certainly these rules are not set in stone but they are as subjective as the entity of pain itself. So what's the issue?

Truthfully, I do not know. But what I do know is that society isn't getting any better. We're getting lazier and lazier, and softer and softer. And really, many people just don't want to do what it takes to "get better". And many clinicians aren't helping the cause with their primarily passive, business-first focused clinics.

However with that said, in my opinion, no one truly ever wants to experience pain. They really don't. And I always keep that in the back of my mind, no matter how difficult it may be to work with someone. BUT...not everyone wants to do what it takes to put themselves in better positions.

Again, is it their fault? Not necessarily. But really, contemporary society doesn't makes things any easier.

You have other health care providers who create iatrogenic pain through diagnostic labelling (think "your back is out"), over-imaging and well just being lazy...or money hungry. Then you have escalators and drive-thrus that perpetuate the sedentary lifestyle. And finally, you have some entity - unbeknownst to me - whereby in this day and age we, as a society, have relinquished all sense of accountability.
"I need to see my [insert health care provider here]".

I would be more than satisfied if my patients never "needed" me. I'm always happy to see them, but truthfully, I would rather give them strategies they can use to manage themselves. Really, who wants to be in a clinic? We should be living our lives free and easy.

But again, no one truly wants to be in pain. So what's the answer? I have no clue.

But what I do know, is that it ain't getting any easier. And I guess, I just have to keep plugging away to get myself out of this state. There is an answer somewhere. But in the meantime, perhaps I need a bigger voice.

And if that means rubbing some people the wrong way along the way, then so be it.
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