Today I want to answer one of the top questions I get asked all the time by many people. “Can you help with…”
My answer is usually: there is always something I can do to help.
Why?
Because I do not treat symptoms - I treat a person.
Osteopathic medicine, even though often believed to be just a gentler version of Chiropraxy, is in fact a way of observing, examining and treat a person (or even animal) in a way that the ultimate goal is to detect the reason for the persons symptoms, may it be a dysfunction or disease in any of the body’s systems.
Does that mean I am saying I can “cure” any disease? Absolutely not!
But what I can do is doing a thorough job of taking a comprehensive case history and trying to understand all aspects of the patient’s physical and emotional state, taking into account old injuries and traumas, surgeries, illnesses, medication and lifestyle aspects- also excluding red flags and risks. Then putting this info aside, following with a thorough aktive and passive clinical exam, testing tissues for their mobility and circling from globally to locally areas of interest of treatment. Then combining both verbal info as well as exam info I will, using a comprehensive medical knowledge from many years of training, reason for a treatment strategy, always making sure to weigh out risks and benefits of treatments.
So therefore usually there is always something I can do- even if it is only to run a proper exam and find out that I need to refer to a different specialist for further exams.
As a first-contact health professional I can see patients without any referral and therefore have to be prepared for any scenario, which makes it even more important to have a good knowledge of differential diagnosis to exclude or diagnose severe physical conditions.
In the past 3 months for example I have diagnosed fractures in 4 clients that had been misdiagnosed in the hospital and then came to see me because the symptoms did not get better. Deep knowledge of clinical examining (and many years of experience) are key here and of course these patients have been referred to further diagnostics to confirm my suspicion that arose out of their clinical presentation.
Especially chronic pain is one of the most common reasons to come and see me. While I normally see people no more than 3-6 sessions to get them back into their normal lives, chronic pains that have been lingering around and have come a habit is sometimes very hard to get rid of. Nonetheless it is always with a try and in case I feel a different practitioner would be more indicated to get quicker success I will be the first to refer as I work tightly interdisciplinary with colleagues of all kinds of medical backgrounds.
So, in short I treat YOU not your symptoms or disease. And there is always something I can do for you.