How I got here... Part 2

Let's backtrack a few years as my stories intersected much earlier than I realized...

My introduction to musculoskeletal medicine was in high school, a chronically painful shoulder from playing outfield turned into 2 rounds of physical therapy [ultrasound, muscle stim and banded exercises] plus an ortho consult where I was told my joints were 'just too lax'. I was told after 'failing' 2 rounds of PT that I could either play through the pain or stop -- because it was my only ADL [activity of daily life] affected. Although I was annoyed at the time because I wanted to 'have my cake and eat it, too' - play softball without pain, even if that meant exploratory surgery. However, I'm now pretty damn grateful that surgeon didn't take advantage of a high school kid & parents that just wanted the best for them. 

In college I traded in year-round sports for a lot of sitting and slumped over computers and books -- & it wasn't even on my phone because texting was annoying back then & we couldn't even take photos on our phones. This brought on lots of tension headaches and strain in the muscles around my neck and shoulders. I wandered into a chiropractor's office where they assured me that a few adjustments & I'd get relief - but I really didn't. As soon as I'd return to cramming for tests, the headaches would be back although they thankfully were better after sleeping. 

After being accepted into an athletic training program freshman year I soon found out that sitting at practices for hours on end wasn't for me; idle & my brain don't go together very well. I was still very fascinated with the body & found myself choosing between physical therapy and chiropractic [I don't do blood]; the lifestyle & holistic emphasis of chiropractic sold me on that field. Plus, I thought everyone has back pain, this will surely be a stable job. Little did I know, I'd become my most puzzling patient.

Fast forward 6 months into chiropractic school & I'm now suffering from constant tension headaches, neck pain & jaw pain. I found out on a routine dental cleaning that I had also been night grinding - the stress of school plus the hours of sitting & studying per day were taking a bigger toll on my body. Adjustments helped loosen up the muscle tension & headaches temporarily but they always came back within 24-48 hours. As time passed I genuinely started to get worried thinking how am I going to help anyone else when I’m only 23 and this isn’t helping me??

I stumbled into soft tissue treatments when my clinic intern was doing some knock off Active Release Techniques treatments & that helped give me 4-5 days of relief vs hours. I started to realize the importance of treating the soft tissue which was definitely not a part of the curriculum at my college. I spent my own time & money to get trained up in ART while I was still in chiropractic school and went on to use this in conjunction with manipulation in practice. A lot of patients sought me out due to soft tissue treatments but it became very labor intensive & hard on my body. I scaled back soft tissue treatments and found that I wasn’t getting substantial enough results for the work I put in. Additionally, I wasn’t able to explain why or how people would continue to get flare ups when they would be doing so well and then regress.

I, myself, was getting a 90-minute massage and a manipulation at least every other week to keep my own problems at bay but I never felt truly 'better'. After almost 2 years of delaying [because I thought it was too good to be true] I signed onto a training website that was 100% soft tissue based [AKA no more manipulation] and kicked myself for delaying for so long. Although this training system no longer exists, Integrative Diagnosis taught me how to correctly diagnose musculoskeletal injuries [my doctoral education neglected to teach me what an internal disc derangement was despite that being the majority of people that walk into any medical office with spinal-based pain ], gave me an objective testing framework to know before a patient walked out of the room if a treatment was successful and how to effectively communicate with patients when they were flat out doing too much in order for their injury to heal -- which almost every other provider in my history had ignored.

I found the answer to injuries that had been plaguing me for years - my shoulder that sounds like gravel grinding from high school, the chronic 'trap' tension & accompanying headaches that kept me from being able to 'drop my shoulder's back for years & the chronic SIJ [sacroiliac joint] pain that started after training for a 1/2 marathon. In a matter of 6 months I flipped my practice upside down & haven't manipulated a patient in over 6 years. 

If you're suffering from annoying, chronic and/or frustrating neck, shoulder or low back pain that has lasted for over 3 months and you've seen 2 other providers [primary care, physical therapy, chiropractic, orthopedic] without resolve then we'd love to help! Check out our office website for more information: https://iowainjurysolutions.com/ 

& onto part 3 - where we tie it all together..