You need answers! You need a plan!
Because there are simply too many examples in today's healthcare model that shake out like this:
You finally muster up the courage to go to your doctor for the low back pain that has begun to interfere with your daily activities and quality of life.
You've done your google research, and you have seen all the conditions it MIGHT be... Sciatica, disc bulge, disc herniation, arthritis, spondylolisthesis, muscle strain, and even CANCER?!
As your appointment draws closer, your stress levels and anxiety levels increase because you don't know what you'll be told! And this increase in stress and anxiety, directly leads to muscle spasm and more pain!
After waiting 3 weeks for your appointment, you finally get to your appointment date and at the moment of truth, you get 15 minutes of face time with your provider and not enough time to ask all your questions.
You get an X-ray for your low back pain, along with oral anti-inflammatories for your troubles. You are told to head home, resume daily tasks, take your medication as prescribed and they will call you about your imaging studies.
A week goes by and your stress levels skyrocket. So many questions - "What did the X-ray show?! Why does my back still hurt, even with the medicine? I'm going to be in pain forever."
You finally get an alert that your imaging studies are in your electronic medical portal. So you rush to read them and you are hit with a new set of questions.
Your X-rays show things like, decreased intervertebral space, or foraminal stenosis, or degenerative disc disease, or increased lumbar lordosis. But what does that mean? Unless you have a medical terminology book nearby, you likely have no idea if these findings are serious or normal. And more importantly, you have no idea what to do next?!
And even worse, sometimes the x-ray report comes back and says there is "no structural abnormality." Then why are you in pain? Why did you even get an X-Ray?
MORE QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS!
You finally get back to your provider a month or 2 later, and by now, you have been in pain for over 6 months. This has progressed into chronic pain and now includes hip pain, knee pain, and maybe even ankle pain. You can no longer sit for longer periods of time, and the muscle tightness has become unbearable. You are now referred to pain management doctors to help get your pain under control with opioids, and surgery was suggested as an option due to pain levels.
But still no real solution.
This hits so close to home for us at Flow Physical Therapy and Wellness in The Woodlands, Texas, because we hear this story from our patients - all the time.
No one has sat and reviewed their pain and addressed their concerns before. No one has told them there are a multitude of options to decrease your pain permanently - without surgery.
This is exactly why we designed our clinic model. To give you the opportunity to be heard. To give you the space to ask your questions, and get the answers you are looking for.
You deserve to be heard. You deserve to be listened to. You deserve undivided attention at every healthcare visit. You deserve answers!
If you feel you haven't been listened to, if you feel you were invalidated, if you feel you were treated more as a number or an image, and not as the unique whole person you are, then click below to be a part of the new and improved healthcare model where you are the center of attention. The healthcare model that gives you long term results and answers!
Dr. Patrick Thompson, PT, DPT, OCS, Cert. DN
Owner of Flow Physical Therapy and Wellness
832.299.5447
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