For patients, staying positive is one of the most important aspects of healing. However, there are occasions when an excessively positive outlook or misunderstanding about what is actually achievable will impede healing. The belief that there is a cure or remedy for everything that hurts is one example of this, which I always see.
Many patients visiting their pain management doctors with the intention of being fixed is quite understandable. You want to find out about the problem, resolve it, let the pain go, and then move on. However, people are not machines as you can’t easily replace or restore a damaged component. The pain you suffer sometimes derives from multiple interconnecting causes and not a simple cause. People just don’t come with an easy-to-read manual of the owner.
Pain in the back is an outstanding example. A cause, such as a herniated disc or a skin injury, can begin with pain or sciatica. However, a single targeted tissue injury can lead fast to a series of events, including tensioning of the back muscles, stiffening joints, and malfunction of nerves. When it does so, the back gets more difficult to lift, the legs get weaker, and sleep, comfort, or work becomes more difficult. If this happens, then people will be nervous, and depressed, have their family and friends removed, and experience the pinch of lost income.
It can be a formula for disasters to assume that all these dynamic and interrelated issues can be solved by only undergoing back-operation to “fix” something systemic. Recovering from a major back intervention such as a fusion can mean months or years of rehabilitation without providing significant and permanent pain relief. Whatever therapies you choose, we believe it helps to take a solution from what hurts rather than to concentrate immediately on repairing or curing. Muscle imbalances, inflammatory joints, herniated discs, and injured nerves will all be healing, and the longer and more attention we take, the better the result.
And not just the body needs to be healed. The painful person’s mind and soul need a way to relieve unpleasant mood swings and debilitating tension. Continuous pain can induce a ‘flight or struggle,’ which can lead to changes in the nervous system, endocrine, and immune systems, which keeps us on the brink and in panic. One procedure or counseling would not necessarily restore and vanish the emotional equilibrium.
Healing may also entail embracing all, including all its imperfections. For example, it is natural to devote scar tissue to the way the body heals. A fractured bone or tortured tendon might heal, but it’s not going to look just like before the injury. It’s easier to focus time and energy on making the best it can do now, and we can’t get back in time to find, feel, or move exactly like we did years ago. Acceptance may not give up; it is to realize how after what we have been through, we can be the strongest version of ourselves.
Both the body and mind of a human may be healed, repaired, and restored when they are wounded. Shifting from “fixing” to healing will open new doors to better pain and well-being management.
Visit Oklahoma Spine & Pain Management to get the pain management doctors and know your condition well. Book your schedule with us without delay.
**Disclaimer: This content should not be considered medical advice and does not imply a doctor-patient relationship.
