Take Care of the Small Problems
Human behavior can be funny sometimes. Of course, there are deep rooted biological reasons that we behave the way we do, though they don’t always help these days. In fact, some of our typical behaviors we are best served NOT following. As humans, we are wired to address the most immediate threat and ultimately turn our attention away from those issues that can be put off. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. If a lion is chasing us, should we focus on that or other smaller concerns that don’t need immediate fixing? Lucky for us, being chased by predators isn’t an issue in modern times, but our brain still works the same way. This so often translates into my daily work environment and how people present with injuries.
Most of the time, when someone experiences pain, they have a measured response to how they address it. If the pain isn’t too bad and doesn’t impact their daily activities, they will typically try and ignore it and hope that it goes away. In some cases this may happen, though there’s no guarantee that it will. When a patient ultimately calls our office, that pain they were self managing has turned into a problem that can no longer be ignored. It is amazing how long people tend to “deal” with the problem until they finally give up and seek help.
During my first examination with a patient, I always ask the question “when did you first experience your pain?”. In response, I will ultimately hear a wide range of answers spanning from a few days to weeks and, no kidding, even years! At this point in reading this, you may be relating. If so, keep reading!
The fact is that many people will try to ignore their injuries for a long time before they seek help. While this is a common behavior, it’s not always the best thing to do. From my experience, I tend to find that if a problem is lasting more than a week or two, the odds of it simply resolving on it’s own tends to drop considerably. Unfortunately, depending on the injury, the increasing time in pain could translate into a more serious injury that’s more difficult to dig yourself out of.
When I have patients that act quickly on their problems, I tend to see a faster resolution. The pain is typically less severe and there’s less inflammation. They can move their injured part more easily, allowing me to more effectively coach them in exercises. I can do any joint manipulation and muscle therapy that I need to do with greater patient tolerance. It allows me to provide more treatment to the patient, making their sessions more effective. When someone comes in with severe pain, it becomes more difficult to do many of these therapies within patient tolerance. With more tissue damage, there’s a much higher mountain to climb. This means more pain, more time, and more money!
In writing this today, my message is this: Take care of your injuries when they are smaller problems and you can avoid the bigger problems. Don’t become dependent on daily pain medication or push yourself down the path to surgery. So many problems can be taken care of relatively easily if addressed early enough. Pain is our natural fire alarm. If you’re “living” with an issue that just won’t go away, it sounds like it’s time to listen to that alarm and work on fixing it. Don’t let it turn into a lion!
Rob Liguori, DC
