It’s that time of year again. Whether it’s raking, shoveling, lugging Holiday decorations down from the attic or sitting in the car for long periods of time, back pain season is here. I’ve recently had a large influx of patients with acute low back pain. It seems like every new patient with low back pain has a different story, different time frame and different history, however, there are a couple of things that I did notice.
One of the patients has been a patient for a couple of years. She was originally treated for low back pain and now rarely has an issue. She is diligent about coming in monthly for a maintenance adjustment even if there is no pain. On this particular day, she woke up with some serious back pain that she could attribute to wearing uncomfortable shoes and being on her feet for a lot of hours (sound familiar ladies?). She called as soon as she woke up with the pain and was in our office as soon as she could get here. A short time later and after a couple of treatments, she said yesterday that she’s 95% pain free. Coming in as close to when the pain starts as possible is something that many of my patients have proven to themselves to be hugely effective in getting them back on their feet sooner.
A couple of the other low back patients had waited up to 2 weeks to come see us, using the “I’m sure it will just go away” theory. They’re still having some pain and are progressing at a slightly slower rate. The ideal time to get in to a Chiropractor is as close to the incident as possible. By the time that you are feeling the pain, the pattern as already started. By waiting, we are now dealing with an increase in muscle spasm and inflammation. The soonest that I’ve ever seen a patient get here was a fellow chiropractor who “threw his back out” on the gym floor and immediately walked into our office. Granted that’s the ideal situation, however, getting in as soon as possible makes all the difference in the world!
Here’s a great article on low back pain and how going to a chiropractor first can decrease the overall cost by 40%!!
http://www.chiroaccess.com/News/Study-Finds-that-Starting-with-Chiropractic-Saves-40-on-Low-Back-Pain-Care.aspx?id=0000263