Tag: back pain

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Diagnosing pain.

Did you know that there is a diagnosis code for virtually every part of your body plus the word “pain.”

Low back pain M54.5
Pain in the Thoracic Spine M54.6
Pain in the left foot M76.672
Chronic Bladder Pain R39.82

There are also diagnosis codes for significantly more detailed problems. This is often the reason for the “pain” diagnosis. I can diagnose right facet joint arthritis, or cervical degeneration that causes radiculopathy. There is value in both forms of diagnosis.

When you, the patient, comes in, you usually tell me about how you’re feeling. This discussion revolves, most commonly, around your pain. I will dig around and ask some questions and let you tell me your story. At this point, I can easily diagnose you with your specific pain diagnosis. You come in with neck pain, and I can diagnose neck pain in about 3 minutes of meeting you.

In the next step, I get to dig around and find out if there is an even more specific diagnosis that explains the “pain” diagnosis. This is the part where I rule out the really serious diagnoses, like a broken bone or a torn ligament. It is the part that takes a lot longer, occasionally more than one visit sort of longer. This is the part where we will usually throw out the fancy words. “Hip Impingement” or “Arthritis.” (And occasionally these fancy words come with an even fancier test.)

Now here is the really tricky part. Getting rid of pain can be really easy. (Tylenol, Gabapentin, Codeine) But getting rid of the fancier word part, the actual cause… now that is a lot harder. Just like diagnosing it requires a deeper understanding by your doctor to name it, it also requires a deeper understanding by you, for you to heal it.

Notice I said “You” to heal it. I can help you get rid of the pain and understand what needs to be done to heal, but the longer term changes, that is going to take more than just coming to see me a few times and taking tylenol for a couple weeks. There is a good chance you’ll need to support your body with movement, nutrition, rest and time.

This is a process. I hope to teach you everything you need to learn to heal, but it takes time. It takes time for us to peel away the layers that got you into pain in the first place and it takes time to explain each new healing step as we reach it. It will take time for you to make the changes you need to stay out of pain.

As Always,
Keep Moving.

Dr Cate

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It is not what you do, it is WHY you do it.

This weekend I filled in another page on my websites. I got right to the point and stated what I did, and how it could help. This morning I got to the office and had a short break between patients. I was feeling more energetic than the spa music that is usually playing in my office so I decided to turn on a Ted Talk while I did my weekly organization.

I started (and ended) today with Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action. At the end of the talk I thought back to how pathetic my writing was this weekend for the website. I realized I described what I do with great fluency but I barely touched upon the “Why.”

So here are some Why’s of my office:

Its always your choice

Because I believe that women with “Unexplained Infertility” can have the joy of becoming pregnant and having healthy babies.
Because I believe that drugs and medications can be very harmful and that western medicine fails to adequately explain these negatives.
Because I want women to feel empowered by their decisions.
Because I feel that the act of placing my hands on someone can be very healing.
Because I want you to feel strong and capable in your own body.
Because feeling stuck in a cycle of disease isn’t a good way to live.
Because I want my support women through their journey so they can in turn support their families and friends and the world will slowly become a more loving place.

Yes, I’m a chiropractor and a Mercier Therapist. Yes, I adjust the spine and the pelvis and increase blood flow to the ovaries. But the “why” is so much more than that and i just wanted to share.

As always,
Keep Moving.
Dr Cate

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Core Strength

core strength

core strength

 

Core Strength

“I need to strengthen my core muscles” – I’ve heard it from about 93% of my patients at some point.

Let’s discuss your core muscles. It is a term that I think gets misused frequently or thrown around as some sort of buzz word. But if someone says, “You need to strengthen your core” your response should be, “Which muscle?”

Core Muscles

If you’ve been into my office, there is a chance that you’ve heard some variation of my “Your core is like a can of soup” analogy before I’ve ever prescribed core strength exercises.  If not, you need to, so here it goes. Your core muscles need to be like a can of soup. The top of the can is your diaphragm, the bottom of the can is your pelvic floor and the sides of the can are your transverse abdominal muscles, oblique muscles, your spine and your rectus abdominus muscles. Are you picturing it?

Now I want you to picture a soup can made out of different materials. Picture first a normal soup can with the entire can made out of stable material on all parts. Next, imagine the top and the bottom of the soup can are made out of the usual metal and instead of metal sides, they decided to just use the paper label.  Third, picture a soup can where the  the sides are made out of the normal steady material and the bottom (Or the top) of the soup can is made out of something like a plastic grocery bag material.

The first one is great for stacking, rolling, moving and generally works well in all situations. The second soup can might be able to hold up the soup can on its own and maybe contain the contents of the can, but if you attempt to stack anything on top of it, forget it! The whole thing will collapse. Now picture the third can. where the sides are solid, but the top or the bottom are not stable. you can probably sit the can upright without a problem, but you cant pick the can up and move it around very safely. (Imagine if the can was filled with liquid – for example your bladder, and you wanted to move this particular soup can! Uh Oh!)

Does this make sense? If the ENTIRE soup can isn’t stable, then there is no way you can do everything you need your can to do without some problem somewhere. Now here is the difficult part. How do we know what part truly needs work??

This is where myself and many other practitioners enter the picture. We need your history, your previous treatments, your surgeries(Including C-sections!) and scars, your daily routine, every detail about you to help you figure out where, when, how and what EXACTLY you need to be doing to “strengthen your core.” Then and ONLY then can I give you an adequate prescription.

As always, I hope you learned something and if you have any questions, let’s set up an appointment and we can see if we can help you!

Dr Cate