What do you think brings the most people into our office? If you guessed lower back pain, you would be absolutely right! I looked back over my recent newsletters and realized that I have not really talked about lower back pain in a LONG time…
So here we go… Over the weekend, I met a friend of mine, who happens to be a primary care physician (not locally), for a cup of coffee. During our conversation we hit on all the current topics that would have the most impact our lives - How will Obamacare be changed? How will Trump do as President? Did you see that crazy picture on Facebook? Who is going to win the Super Bowl? You know that questions that you ask all of your friends! But then I was able to sneak in a little curve ball. I asked him “When you get a lower back pain patient in the office what do you do?” I was genuinely curious how he would handle a patient with lower back pain. His response was pretty simple. He said that he usually tells his patient to manage it with Advil (or something similar) and if there was trauma he would refer for x-rays. When he finished his sentence I just sat there patiently and waited to make sure that he was done. Then he turned to me and asked me what I would do (I was hoping that he would)! I looked at him and said “It Depends.” I think that he was caught off guard by my answer, but it was 100% the truth.
Every patient is different. So please stop comparing your lower back pain to your mother’s, your brother’s, your neighbor’s, your friend’s. Everyone is different, and needs to be treated differently. Below is a quick video that I shot a couple of months ago after I woke up with lower back pain, and it will walk you through how I handled it.
Also take a look at this infographic, because it might answer some of the questions that you have about your own lower back pain, or maybe you can share it with a friend who is dealing with lower back pain right now.
Movement is my Medicine,
