All effective and efficient joint pain treatments must start with a treatment plan.
My treatment plans are based on the patient’s answers to a series of questions. If you have worked with me as a patient, you know I am full of questions. In medicine, this is known as taking a patient’s history.
Questions like: Do you have pain, and please describe it? Also, describe weakness. When and how did the problem start? And what have you done to solve the problem that has and has not worked? “Are you broken or just out of gas?”
In the last two years, we have noticed an emerging trend at our office. We are getting more calls from people who “do not want to become patients;” they “just want to come for treatment.”
I understand that people do not want to go to another doctor who will disappoint them. I also understand that people want to be treated by someone they trust. Unfortunately, people cruise the internet, forming medical opinions based on what they are being told by websites selling products they may not need and selling services they may not need. As we all know, not everything you read on the internet is true.
I do not understand how to treat a person for joint pain unless they are a patient, have had an assessment, and have discussed a treatment plan.
I spoke to one prospective patient suffering from shoulder pain who “just wanted a treatment.” They declined a first visit and an assessment, saying their massage therapist had referred them. I then asked them what specific treatment they needed, to which they replied, “You decide; you are the doctor.” As a licensed doctor, I have legal and moral obligations to do my own patient assessments before treating a person – that is what a first visit is for!
My general process for formulating a treatment plan for joint pain is as follows:
- Personal health history, family health history.
- Review diagnostic imaging when available.
- Review or order and review medical laboratory tests.
- Physical exam.
- Diagnostic ultrasound exam.
- Bio-resonance evaluation.
- Nutritional, herbal, and homeopathic treatment recommendations.
- Schedule and perform regenerative injection treatments.
- Treatment follow-up evaluations and treatment plan changes where necessary.
I recently added step 6. It is giving me insights into how to best solve joint pain, in addition to the usual nutritional and injection treatments.
Success in solving joint pain requires a plan and good communication between the patient and the doctor. No one healthcare procedure will be a complete solution. Working through your assessment and treatment options with your doctor is the only way to develop a complete solution to your joint pain.
