Whilst on my Musculo Outpatient prac, I have been finding it very rewarding having patients comment on how much better they feel upon leaving their session. It’s much more different than within a hospital setting, where patients often see you as the ‘evil’ one who is making them get out of bed/ move their limb post-surgery, when it is often the last thing they feel like doing.
However having experienced patients leaving their session feeling worse, or much the same as when walking in, is something I hadn’t been prepared for. We are often taught that “this treatment is used to improve this condition”, so it can sometimes come as a surprise when a patient returns with little improvement. This happened to me when I had a new patient, already diagnosed with subacromial bursitis. Although I already knew her diagnosis, I went through a full examination of her shoulder and treated her as appropriate. However, the more assessment I did, the worse her pain would get, and therefore on re-assessment (post-Rx) her pain came on earlier in range although still at the same intensity. My supervisor assured me that some post-treatment soreness was common in this condition (especially since she had hardly been moving her arm for 3 months) and also due to the inflammatory nature of her problem.
After discussing this with my supervisor and feeling reassured my treatment had not caused any harm, I still felt almost guilty that my patient’s pain was seemingly worse. I think it is important to remember we can’t always offer ‘magical cures’ to our patients, especially when there are other processes going on (in this case a strong inflammatory response), although this can still sometimes not seem enough to help your confidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment