"Once I Get Started..."

"I don't want to see a Chiropractor because once I get started I will have to go from now on." 

I have been hearing this for the last 39 years. During that time, I have treated thousands of people for a myriad of conditions, injuries, and maladies. If this premise were true, I would arrive at work every day to long lines of patients that would stretch around the block at least and continue until it's time to go home. Why do some people have this perception? For one thing, as a physical form of treatment versus a pharmacological form of treatment, I cannot package up my treatment and send it home like a prescription. Every time you take a pill from that prescription, you are being treated.

Since my form of treatment has to be hand-delivered, you do have to return for care until the condition or injury is resolved or stabilized. Just like other conditions, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, will have to be managed throughout the life of the patient, there are some physical conditions or injuries with residual symptoms that are permanent and require some form of treatment to make the symptoms less severe or more livable.

While some of these conditions require pharmaceuticals, others can be, and often are, better addressed without drugs and their potential side effects. Sprains, strains, and disc injuries will all resolve with proper treatment and time. Other more permanent conditions, due to severe injury and scar tissue formation or congenital conditions, may require periodic treatment to manage the symptoms. I do have some patients I have treated for many years, but only a handful of those with any regularity. The job of any physician is to treat and release each patient in a timely and cost-effective manner.