Is Your pain talking to you? - by Brent Dodge

Of all our senses, pain may be one you’d prefer to live without. But pain may be your body’s way of telling you that something isn’t right. That can be a good problem . . . if you listen in and seek a solution sooner, rather than later.

Another problem with pain is that when it’s left to fester, it can oftentimes get out of hand. Chronic and lingering pain is often more difficult to treat successfully. In the 20 years I’ve been a physical therapist, that’s one of the biggest tragedies I’ve run in to. Yet when I’ve been able to help someone early on, they commonly need just a couple sessions with me to figure out the cause of the pain and to implement ways to head it off quickly and definitively.

Most of the time, we shrug pain off as insignificant. Then it gets worse and ends up impacting peoples’ ability to do their activities, including work and play.

One of my friends started having wrist and hand pain from working on her computer. She continued her attempt to meet deadlines, even when her pain talked ever louder to her. When the pain became unbearable, she finally sought help. But it was too little  too late. Resultantly, she ended up with debilitating pain that to this day impairs her ability to use her hands in a normal way.

The moral of the story is to listen intently when your pain talks to you. When it does call out your name, seek help early on. Doing so heightens the likelihood you’ll be able to head off a potentially challenging problem right from the start.

So the next time pain starts blabbing at you, consider getting advice from your healthcare provider. In the early phases of discomfort, you may only need some helpful guidance to get you going in the right direction.

To help you in your quest, I’ve placed numerous documents on Alpine’s clinic website describing many of the orthopedic problems that seem to plague us the most. Take a few minutes to inform yourself on a potential problem. In this way, you’ll have the upper hand and be able to talk back to whatever ails you.
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Click here to access our free orthopedic library.