Video Transcript Below
Let's take a few minutes to talk about neck pain, because neck pain is one of those things that really can get in the way of your life, from a day-to-day basis, or even a minute by minute basis, if it's giving you trouble. Now, you may have been putting up with neck pain for years. Maybe you're in a helping profession. Like you're a dentist or a nurse or a physician where you're having to look down for a long period of time. Maybe you are a metal worker or an artist, something that keeps you in that head down position for a long period of time, and that can wear on your muscles and actually make your joints very stiff over time.
So that way, after a certain number of years, a certain number of time, it kind of hurts to stand upright. Maybe you've been sitting at a desk for a long time. You're a desk jockey. The true sport in the working world, and you're typing on a computer all day. Over time, you may find that your back starts to slump a little bit. Maybe your shoulders round forward. It makes those upper trapezius get a little bit tight. You're feeling some symptoms up into the back of your head. You may feel like you're having some difficulty with stretching it out. [inaudible 0:104] you can get full range of motion, any direction.
Maybe you're getting a headache. The kind of headache that comes up on the back of your head. Maybe even up over the top, call it the ram's horn headache. Or right across the brow. It feels like it's deep under the eyes or in the sinuses. Headaches are very common and it's usually not the cause of the head that's the problem. It's actually something going on with the neck. Now, neck pain can also sometimes lead to some issues, not only with range of motion, but you may find you're getting some radiating symptoms out into the shoulder. Sometimes when we have shoulder pain, we think, ah, something wrong with my shoulder. I didn't do anything though. Well, it could be because it's coming from the neck.
You may find that you're getting some weakness in one or both sides of your arms, maybe down into the hands or fingers. You're finding that there is some numbness or some tingling, things just don't feel right. Maybe you feel cold sometimes. Something that you put up with for a certain amount of time is neck pain, neck discomfort because in the past, it's gone away or you can stretch it out, get a bit of relief for just long enough and it goes away. Well, it hasn't been, that's why you're watching this video. You're trying to figure out how long is this going to take? How can I get rid of this? If you've already been to your doctor and your doctor said, oh, you know, you're getting a little older. You've been doing this particular job for a while, so this is your new normal. Or you were prescribed some medication and medication was supposed to calm some of the pain symptoms, but didn't quite take them away.
It's this short-lived. If you have a short term solution, but not that long-term solution, you want. You may be able to put up with the pain symptoms, maybe they're low level. But they're nagging and they're frustrating. They're making life more complicated because you can't do everything that you want or need to be able to do. I have new moms that come into my office all the time, who are nursing. They spent so much time holding the baby, and looking down that they get a real crick in their neck. They get headache. They get neck pain.
They lose range of motion and it gets harder to do things like lift up your baby. And you've been to chiropractic. You've maybe tried some stretches or some exercises that your friends or YouTube or Google or your doctor said, these are sure to work. When chances are, they may not have worked because not all exercises are a one size fits all approach. So, like I said, there are many reasons why we get neck pain and many reasons why probably doing somebody else's exercises that work for them, aren't going to work for you. Because the overarching goal here is to help you feel better, help you improve your function so you can do what you want and need to be able to do, so you can stay active and work. You need to stay out of the doctor's office, take fewer pain meds, if any pain meds at all. Avoid the heating pads, avoid the ice.
So how physical therapy actually works for all of that is we're going to take our first 60 to 75 minute appointment. In the initial part of the visit, it's going to be all about the interview because I want to know everything about what you are experiencing now. What you've experienced in the past. Have you done this before? Have you sought other types of treatment? If so, what was it? Was it physical therapy? Was it chiropractic? Was it a massage? How'd it go? Did it go well, did it not go so well? What did you like about it? What didn't you like about it? There are many things that go into actually understanding why you hurt. Then what I also want to know is what does the day to day look like for you? So what kind of work do you do?
What are your family responsibilities? What are your work responsibilities? What do you like to do to stay fit? All of that goes into understanding you, the complete person. Also want to know what sort of medications you've been taking. I'd like to know, overall, how you feel about your neck and about your body, and why this is hurting, why you think it's hurting. So that way we have a solid and a thorough understanding going forward as to how to create the perfect personalized program that's actually going to help you feel better. So for the duration of the rest of your visit, what we'll then do armed with that information, is I'm gonna look at your, muscle flexibility. I'm gonna look at your joint range of motion, your mobility.
I want to check all those nerves coming out of the neck and make sure that they're doing their job, and none of them are getting pinched or kinked like a hose. So that way, by the end of the visit, we can do a little bit of treatment help you already start to feel better, and then ensure that you have some very specific to dos. So that way, by the time we see each other in the next visit, then over the next few, we can continue to reevaluate and see are we on the right path? Because if we're not, we're going to switch gears right away and make sure that you are getting the perfect personalized treatment. Along the way, you'll probably continue to have questions. You may notice that as you do a specific type of exercise, that makes feel a little bit different, maybe better, maybe the same, maybe a little bit worse. And that's where communication comes in because not all exercises, not all programs are one size fits all, which is why we're personalizing this. Because imagine what would happen if we take your symptoms as they are now, and we improve them by about 25%. How does that not only affect the way you feel, but how much better are you at actually doing what you need and want to be able to do with fewer pain pills, staying out of the doctor's office, with the less likelihood of an injection. Now let's take that again to 50% improvement or a seventy-five percent improvement. As we make more and more incremental improvements because of your diligence and our solid communication, your neck pain, the dysfunction that comes with it, all become slowly a thing of the past.
I applaud you for taking the time and taking the effort to actually try to figure out why you hurt and how much longer this is going to happen. And you're going to know all of those questions specifically, when you get a thorough evaluation that takes a 60 to 75 minutes and we can build that perfect personalized program just for you.
So I don't care if you woke up with little crick in your neck yesterday, you're having problems turning your head. Or if this has been something that's been going on for years. If your doctor or anybody else has told you, this is your new normal, it's terrible advice. I don't care how old you are, how young you are, how fit you are or how unfit you are. Everybody ends up having a little bit of pain and discomfort along the way, but it doesn't mean that you have to live with it for the rest of your life.