Why Back Pain is a Piece of Cake
Did you know that back pain is a lot like a piece of cake? You’ve probably never heard that sentence before but I think it’s true.
This week I saw a new patient who had been recommended to me by someone else who had been to see me. When she came into the clinic, she uttered the words that I dread to hear…
“It’s the same problem as my friend, and you fixed her in one treatment!”
We love the fact that at the Courtyard Clinic, nearly all our new patients come from recommendations. It’s really satisfying to know that every new face through the door signifies a job well done. However, it can be tricky when that carries a weight of expectation. Some people do improve a lot after one session, most people will take between two and five, but some might take ten or maybe an even a longer period of treatment to get a good recovery. We can make an informed prediction about how long a recovery will be based on our findings and diagnosis, but we can never be 100% accurate for one simple reason. EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT.
Imagine that those two different people coming into the clinic are like two people that have made a cake and take it to a chef to diagnose. The chef has to work out the ingredients and their quantities, as well as the method. The chef would work it out based on tastes, texture, appearance and smell. Obviously, there are hundreds of different types of cake and a multitude of different ways to make them. The ingredients can vary, the shape, how its cooked and what it’s for. Wedding cake, Birthday cake, Cheesecake, Christmas cake, all unique and all different, but all still cake.
This is why cake is a lot like back pain. The new patient that came in did have the same type of pain, in the same area of her back, but this time it was her pain, in her low back and therefore her treatment and recovery were completely different. Just like the two cakes, this lady and her friends back pain had different recipes with different ingredients and different methods.
The reason some people get better quicker than others is because some recipes are a bit more complicated than others. Sometimes a problem that appears simple can take a while to resolve, sometimes something that seems complicated can be resolved quickly. Bodies that have been under stress and strain over a long period of time will have developed many different coping mechanisms to deal with it. Movement patterns and guarding mechanisms can be very ingrained and take the body a long time to give up. Somebody else’s might be more recent, less practiced and that situation might resolve more quickly. Essentially, we’re all different and everybody’s pain is unique and individual.
Here at the Courtyard Clinic, we have years of experience diagnosing and treating the cause of our patients discomfort so if you’ve got a problem, bring it to us. We’re also pretty good at diagnosing cakes…so bring those too!
