Don’t be VOMIT

VOMIT.  Now that I’ve got your attention, it’s not what you think. 

Victim Of Medical Imaging Technology. (shout out to Adam Wolf, PT)

Frequently, people in pain go to their physician and eventually get an x-ray or MRI. They await the results of the exam and are usually faced with a diagnosis and terms that can cause alarm: Herniated Disc, Stenosis, Bulging Discs, Degenerative Disc Disease, Osteoarthritis, etc.

What these imaging results don’t account for is how the body moves in real life. MRIs and X-rays are taken in a static position, MRIs are taken lying down. These positions don’t reflect the positions and movements that the body performs when pain occurs. The tests only show a snapshot, a moment in time, that may or may not be the cause of your pain. Medical imaging can sometimes only infer if there is a direct correlation between diagnosis and pain.

I’m not saying that all medical imaging is bad or pointless, they are important tools to reveal the underlying structures in the human body and are used to diagnosis many diseases. When I do a physical exam to diagnose a musculoskeletal disorder, sometimes I’ll refer the client back to the physician to get an MRI to rule out any latent findings.

However, we can’t get overly focused on the imaging results. Oftentimes, the results can define a person and that’s all they begin to think about. It’s like a “thought virus”. They begin to perseverate on it and it begins to take over their ability to rehab successfully because they become so focused on their disc or joint issue and forget about how pain can be connected to how they move, and not just their imaging results.

What most people don’t know is that after the age of 40, a “normal” radiological image is very rare. Most MRI and X-ray results are often not directly correlated to a person’s function and pain levels. As a physical therapist, I don’t treat herniated discs or degenerative discs, those are for surgeons.

What I treat is movement dysfunction. Despite what your MRI or X-ray says, I look at how you are moving, that tells me more about your symptoms and what’s the cause of your pain. So many times I’ve seen patients come to me with a specific MRI result and upon a physical exam, don’t present how their MRI says they should present. The results don’t match. But we have to get to the bottom of the problem. We have to be detectives.

Don’t be too hung up on your imaging results.

Physical Therapists are movement specialists and biomechanical detectives. Contact me to schedule a Total Body Diagnostic to get to the bottom of your pain problems.