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Is there alternatives to fixing our pain?
Why? Because they didn’t know to do that. Or maybe because insurance doesn’t pay for those types of treatments and doctors are lodged in our insurance system, unable to send patients to anyone outside of said system. I had broken my right wrist at the tender age of two. It makes complete sense that those carpal bones would shift, particularly when I was doing massive amounts of ten-key for my job. Had I spent any time during my nine months on workman’s comp learning about my own body, coupling that knowledge with my awareness of my history, and adding in the understanding of how I did my job, I might have known what to do. But at the time, I thought the doctors would know better, and I was afraid of the pain.
Now I come at these things in a completely different way. First, I am aware that pain is simply an indicator of an imbalance. Can that imbalance be something like cancer? Yes, but that is actually very rare considering how many aches and pains the average person has. Going to the doctor to get tests and rule out the big things calms the mind and allows us to move in different directions. The problem is what comes next. So, second I am aware that doctors are trained in specific ways and can only offer me what they know. Do I want what they are offering? Sometimes. When my tooth went bananas and I couldn’t stand the pain, and the endodontist couldn’t get me in for two days, I filled the prescription for vicodin and took it. When the doctor confirmed that the small rash on my upper left breast looked like a fungal rash and prescribed a combination steroid, anti-fungal cream, I didn’t even fill the prescription. I used tea tree oil and it went away.
Third, I rarely go to a doctor without knowing exactly what I am looking for. When my sacrum acts up, I know that the doctor cannot help me. He/she could give me muscle relaxers, which I do not want, send me to physical therapy, which may or may not help, or put me in a back brace, which may help in the beginning, but has the potential to make my back dependent on it and weaken it further. I know that my SI (sacroiliac) joints are out again, and I know why. I spend a few days or a week, depending on how bad it is, getting SMRT done, doing yoga, and seeing the chiropractor. But when I think I have an infection, I go to the doctor to get that verified and get a prescription.
It is time for us to stop depending on our doctors to fix all of our aches and pains. Sometimes the treatments they are able to give us make our situation worse. I have met people who slept wrong, threw out their first ribs (you know you’ve done this when you get up and can’t turn your head without pain), went to the doctor, got their treatments, and have been in pain for two years. They come to me (many times at the insistence of someone they know, convinced that no one can help them but doctors), I work on them for an hour, 60% to 80% of the pain disappears, and they are angry that it took this long for someone to help them. It is time for us to take responsibility, to seek out the types of treatments we actually need, and take the time to do some self-care.
Tags: alternatives, doctor, help, massage, pain
