The Doctor's View


I feel that it is very important that patients are well informed about what is expected from them. I know that this may sound very strange for the doctor to say, but it is your effort that helps to heal you; we are just the mediators for your body and its functions.

I am an advocate on doing rehabilitation to support your treatments, which helps the patients to keep their independence, reduce healing time and restore proper pain free function. The reason that it is so important to do rehab for a specific condition, is that it helps to cement any type of hands on therapy that you may have received by the doctor. Now I am not going to tell someone in terrible pain, with an acute injury to go do rehab at first, they are treated primarily to stop the cause of the suffering/pain. When the pain is in control then we will start to slowly integrate the correct therapy to strengthen that which needs to be strengthened. This will also help the patient to heal faster and correct faulty biomechanics of the body. And no one is ever to young or old to benefit from chiropractic care.
Ask yourself one question, "Is Pain natural?" The answer is Yes, but only to tell you that something is wrong. Then the pain signal is designed to reduce when you get help to fix the problem. We all wish it was that easy, especially with the life styles that we live this day and age. The reason the pain signals keeps coming back no matter how much Advil, Tylenol or Aleve that you take, is because the cause of the pain is not being fixed only masked; the body does not lie. I do hope that everyone would actually take the time to help themselves when needed, because you cannot help others when you are falling apart.

The last thing that I would like to address is that I hear a lot of complaints/comments from patients about what they thought Chiropractors and/or Chiropractic treatments were like. The first statement is “Why does it take so long? ", and the second one is “God, I am here all of the time now!" You or someone you know has probably said this and it is understandable. Let me clear the air here, not all of the time will you need to be seen so many times for treatment; some people need more and some need less. "Why does it take so long for this to get better?" Well, each person is different and each condition is different and it matters on how long you have had the condition. Now, I know that everyone has heard the standard. . . "3-4 times a week for the first 6-8 weeks and then we will re-evaluate your condition." This is true only in some conditions and needs to be questioned by the patient. Actually, I usually like to see a 25% improvement in symptoms at least in the first 2-3 weeks of treatment when possible. Now, I think that you the patient needs to be active in their health care. If the patient doesn't ask questions about treatment, or the doctor will not answer the patient's questions about their non improvement and time spent, then time to find another doctor. If you feel guilty about looking at another doctor, don't be, it is your health! Wow, this may really cause problems, but I believe that we are here to help you as efficiently as possible and to tell you the truth. Please consider that we all have a different philosophy on chiropractic, based on the schools that we come from and the continuing education that we choose to pursue after our graduation.

BE ACTIVE IN YOUR HEALTH CARE! THERE IS ONLY ONE OF YOU!

Thanks for your time and have a great day.

Sincerely,

Dr. David A.Fruhauf

www.pubmed.com