Many of my patients come into my clinic with excruciating pain, injury or weakness. By the third or fourth visit, their pain is already gone due to our advanced techniques and cutting edge technology. By the third or fourth visit, thanks to our advanced techniques and technology, their pain is almost completely gone–but that doesn’t mean you’re healthy yet, and we need to work together to prevent you from reinjuring yourself by accident.
I just want to explain what you can expect on your third or fourth visit with us.
During your third or fourth visit, we will review our program pathways and re-assess on your progress and where we are in the program.
The first step of your rehab program is stopping the pain as quickly as possible. And since we use specialized movements, exercise, and hands-on procedures to accomplish this, our results show very quickly.
Let’s say it is not the secret that most of our clients come to see us because they feel pain as a result of an injury and they want their pain to go away naturally ASAP.
As we use cutting edge technology and advanced techniques to help our clients heal fast, the pain disappears rather quickly and in most cases, within a few sessions.
If you are watching reading this, you have probably spent some time with us and are a couple of weeks into your plan of care, feeling much better and having much less pain and discomfort.
However, I want to remind you that the pain is not a destination; it is just a phase. Pain is just a symptom of a deeper problem, fault lines in the body and mechanical dysfunction.
Our real goal is correcting underlying issues and root cause of the problem to get lasting results and help you reach a higher level of health. Therefore, it is very important to continue with therapy once the primary pain subsides. You have to know that you are not done yet.
What is A Fault Line?
Fault lines are a mechanical dysfunction created by weakness and causing tightness, inflammation, wear and tear, injury and pain. Fault lines are a mechanical problem and cause joints, muscles and tendons to become damaged, inflamed, and cause pain and injury.
Fault lines are caused by muscle imbalances, where one muscle pulls on a joint stronger than the opposing muscle can safely resist as it’s designed to. It takes few additional weeks after original pain is gone to correct them. Simply treating the “symptom” of the fault line (pain, injury and inflammation) isn’t going to get things better in the long run.
Here’s an example:
Let me compare body fault lines with a faulty car axle. It would make sense to you and it would be easy to understand that a faulty axle would cause uneven pressure, repetitive stress on tires and wear and tear. Even though fixing or replacing tires would seem to be a solution, the problem would inevitably repeat itself as long as the axle is out of alignment.
That being said, fixing the local problem will take care of your pain and localized inflammation, but not the root cause of the problem. Without fixing the root cause of the problem, the pain will return.
Furthermore, at this time, because the pain is better, but the root cause of the problem is still not corrected, you are at the risk of re-injuring yourself.
Therefore, do not push too hard, jump back into doing strenuous activities and “test” your body.
Next, with pain being better you might lose motivation and you might become less compliant and persistent with therapy, as well as the home exercise program and self-care.
I want to remind you that pain relief is not a goal but just a phase. The goal is correcting faulty mechanics and this part is beyond pain relief and it takes some time.
The goal is regaining normal function and higher level of health so you can live an active life style, feel youthful, strong and confident again. Therefore, do not let other things get in the way and persist in finishing the process to correct faulty mechanics, stabilize and strengthen the body so you can restore normal function, gain resilience, prevent re-injury and reach a higher level of health.
So, to make long story short, here are some tips to keep in mind while you’re wrapping up therapy:
- Pain relief is not a destination it is just a phase.
- Relieving pain does not guarantee a safe return to function.
- Do not push too hard now or test yourself too soon because you can re-injure yourself.
- If you reinjure yourself, we cannot guarantee an initial estimate of length for your plan of care.
- Be persistent with attendance, self-care and home exercise program.
- Keep all your appointments, show up on time, do not skip on treatments.
- Ask questions, show up for appointments, be involved in your therapy for the best results and the best return on your time and money investment.
Do not drop out; you are not done yet. The problem will return if you do not finish this process. You are almost there.
It is an honor to be your partner in healing. We are here to support you through this.