BACK PAIN MISUNDERSTANDING AND POOR TREATMENT

Recently, I was asked why I created this blog with almost daily posts. The two main reasons are at the core of back pain relief and treatment and may be worth reading.

First, I know that the longer you've had back pain the more likely it is that what you do to help yourself is more important than what the doctors do to help you. This is a terrifying, frustrating, wonderful reality that places the responsibility for pain relief squarely in your hands. I know that numerous treatments for back pain will make the pain worse, not better. I know that the treatments for persistent back pain must be different than those for short term or acute back pain. I know that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors can open or close pain gates and make back pain bettter or worse. I know that people in pain must be educated about medical treatments for pain and communicate more effectively with their doctors in partnership. And I know that even if you are receiving the best possible medical treatment, you probably have more back pain than is necessary for the amount of tissue damage present. You can absolutely hurt less.


Second, after providing webcam and telephone assessment, treatment, and coaching across the U.S. and other English speaking contries for several years, I have learned how bad much of the medical care is for back pain patients across the U.S. and the world. I have learned that most people in pain are not treated in multidisciplinary pain management clinics, are not being treated by pain physicians and pain psychologists, have not been educated thoroughly about their back pain, and deal with the various conflicting agendas of their treating doctors.

Thus was born the need for this blog. My career has been dedicated for a quarter century to relieving medical pain and suffering. This blog is a logical, if unpaid, extension of that dedication for a worldwide audience. If you haven't been treated for several years in a multidisciplinary pain clinic including biofeedback and pain psychology, you can conclude that you have more pain than is necessary or inevitable. If you don't have a thorough understanding of "multifactoral back pain" with hundreds of strategies for self management, you have more pain than you should. If you are not in an agressive partnership with your pain doctor, you hurt more than you have to. If you don't understand that pain relief is largely your choice once you have the knowledge, then you can hurt less.

Some pain is inevitable; how much pain, and how much suffering, is something we can discover together. I promise to work hard for you. You have to work hard for you too.

Dr. Tim