Why haven't you seen your own xrays?
"stay in your lane, pal...."
This is not medical advice.
In Monday’s article I defended doctors. In this piece I’m going after the Medical Industrial Complex. BTW, my car brakes work just fine. It’s not illegal for me to say what I’m going to say. It is frowned upon. I am not a doctor or radiologist. After I point out a few things, you may agree with me.
If asked your car mechanic a question, do they say “oh I’m not going to show or explain the problem, because you wouldn’t understand?” Would you accept that and just pay the bill?
Why haven’t you seen your own xrays? They are yours, and you, or the tax payers, paid a lot of money for them. They were taken to help you with your pain.
There are several reasons for this. The only answer I’ve heard is “we don’t want them to focus on their pain.” Ok. Maybe we should help them NOT be in pain, and explaining what’s going on will help them get better. I don’t think most doctors have the time to explain your xrays to you. If they show them to you, you might have questions.
In therapy we are very fortunate that we get to spend hours with you. I am going to talk about low back pain specifically, because those are the most frequent xray cases.
The industry should not be giving the same exercises or stretches to every patient. I have met therapists who do this. McKenzie extension will help maybe 80% of all patients. What about the other 20%? Was “breaking a few eggs” to make that medical omelette ok?
Every back pain patient is an individual case. If you have too much back extension, with some anterior spondylolisthesis (picture at top,) more back extension may harm you.
How are we goin to know if that's you? By looking at your xrays. Notice I said look, not read. I can’t tell you the number of times that reports do not match the picture.
In one case with that condition, a massage therapist was standing on the patients’ lower back. Needless to say, that may have made things worse.
“you arrogant…stay in your lane, that is not your specialty!” That is true. However, you see thousands of pictures matched to presentation, and you notice a few patterns.
Back stabilization exercises can help many low back patients feel better. We need to know which direction is best for you. More lower back curve, or less? Sometimes it’s obvious outwardly with your posture. Sometimes the symptoms tell us. An xray gives us a more clear answer.
I would argue that it’s ok to see your xrays, and research those images against norms on the internet. See someone who cares, and can help you fix it.
P.S. I see many retired English teachers. Yes, I'm working on not starting sentences with and or but. Thank you :)