Three Choices
You Can Make
about Your Pain
You can Ignore Your Pain
You can Mask Your Pain
Do Something About Your Pain
With almost any problem - like pain - we have three options. Each has consequences. We see this all the time in people that have problems like back pain, or shoulder rotator cuff pain.
Option 1: Ignore Your Pain
This will work...for a while. If you ignore your pain it will usually go away. Over time, though, it may take longer and longer to recover from the pain. Eventually recovery takes too long, or your pain begins to really interfere with your normal activities. That usually leads to option 2.
Option 2: Mask Your Pain
You could jump right to option 2. This option really consists of two strategies.
The first thing you might do is stop normal activities that cause your pain. If you have back pain from spinal stenosis you will only be able to stand or walk for a short period of time. The pain will clear if you sit down for a few minutes. One way to ask you pain is to limited your activities - like the amount of time your stand or walk - to avoid the pain.
Your other option is to take pain or anti-inflammatory medication. Things like Advil, Aleve, or Tylenol. We see this all the time with people that have shoulder pain or a rotator cuff problem.
You might start out with a sore shoulder. You take the medication for a week and the pain goes away. You resume normal activities. The pain comes back. Then you have to take the medication a longer time before the pain goes away.
The cycle repeats. Eventually you end up taking the medication for moths at a time. The problems is the side effects of the medications. You are at a greater risk if you take them all the time. The risk from side effects can be even greater if you take prescription pain or anti-inflammatory medications.
Option 3: Do Something About Your Pain
You can find out what is causing your pain and do something about it. If you back hurts, your shoulder hurts, or something else hurts, and it keeps coming back, there is a reason for the pain.
The sooner you take care of your pain the better. It takes longer to get better if you ignore or mask it for a long time. And at some point, physical therapy may not be able to clear up all your pain.
Your Options
Dr. Tim Flynn states "Never Underestimate the Power of the Medical System to Make Your Worse." See his 5 minute YouTube Video "keeping Wolves and Opioids Away."
You can choose to take care of your problems with good physical therapy - a safe and natural way to treat most of your painful conditions.
Or you can subject yourself to the traditional medical system. Get medications, injections, and surgery. As Dr. Flynn states - these are dangerous and often not necessary.
Good Physical Therapy Should be Your First Stop
PT is a safe, effective, and natural way to heal. You will avoid the relative danger, cost, and time associated with medications, injections, and surgery.
To find good physical therapy we recommend you do your research. Not all are physical therapists are equal. We recommend you don't consider going to a physical therapy department. Look for a private practice that depends on taking good care of you so you will return for your future care. Information should be available about each individual therapist to allow you to chose who would be the best fit for your healthcare.
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Christopher DiPasquale, PhD, PT, OCS, SCS, CHT is a physical therapist at Performance Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine, with offices in Hebron and Colchester, Connecticut. He is board certified by the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialties in Orthopedic Physical Therapy and Sports Physical Therapy and a Certified Hand Therapist by the Hand Therapy Certification Committee. Visit pptsm.com for more information. You can also call the Hebron office at 860-228-4883 or Colchester office at 860-537-3014.