{"id":21078,"date":"2020-03-25T19:22:35","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T00:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=21078"},"modified":"2022-03-21T15:18:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:18:31","slug":"taking-care-of-yourself-while-staying-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2020\/03\/25\/taking-care-of-yourself-while-staying-home","title":{"rendered":"Taking Care of Yourself while Staying Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Seeing Your Chiropractic Physician via Telemedicine<\/a>? Absolutely!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know what you\u2019re thinking. ‘How can you possibly give me an adjustment during a video conference?’  The short answer is I can\u2019t, but when coming to our office for an in-person appointment is difficult or impossible, I can continue to help. As a chiropractic physician, I\u2019ve been working with patients via telemedicine for several years, and it\u2019s become a useful tool in ways I never imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider these ideas:
–Chiropractic physicians do more than adjust. While some chiropractic work uses a hands-on approach, this doesn\u2019t represent the sum of our treatment strategies. Patients usually leave my office (physical or virtual) with at least one exercise they can do at home to treat the problem. Also, we often discuss ergonomic changes that can help reduce pain and improve function, such as using a lumbar roll for support while sitting, moving your computer monitor closer to avoid straining your neck, or continuing your weight lifting with a few specific changes in form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–You can keep progressing even though you can\u2019t get to our office.  Checking in with me virtually to ensure you\u2019re performing a therapeutic movement or exercise properly can mean the difference between improving and plateauing or worse, exacerbating the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–You are more than musculoskeletal. During our virtual meeting, we\u2019ll discuss your history and symptoms to help determine the right treatment. If you need lab tests or diagnostic imaging, I can order them for you. I can also recommend supplements and, in case a prescription or specialist opinion is needed, can refer you appropriately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Telemedicine empowers our connection. When you\u2019re in pain you can feel powerless. You don\u2019t want to move the wrong way or cause further damage, and sometimes you don\u2019t even want anyone touching you. With a virtual chiropractic visit, we can safely walk through movements and other strategies to help alleviate pain and restore function. It\u2019s the direction musculoskeletal medicine is moving anyway, and I\u2019m pleased to walk you through the patient-specific approaches included in techniques such as\u00a0McKenzie Method<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Shoulder Symptom Modification Procedure<\/a>. Techniques like this exist for nearly every musculoskeletal problem and I can help you learn how to make the problem better yourself at home.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t that feel empowering?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you\u2019re currently a patient of mine or and would just like to talk about a musculoskeletal problem you\u2019ve been dealing with and some strategies to get you started on treatment, I\u2019m ready to see you. I\u2019ll be meeting with new patients and following up with current ones using telemedicine during Covid-19, and I encourage you to use this method of care while we\u2019re all responsibly staying at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call our Patient Services team at 773.296.6700 to set up your visit. We\u2019ll spend a half hour or so together in a virtual consultation room (a little longer if I\u2019ve never met you) and by the time we\u2019re done we\u2019ll have a plan in place to get you feeling better soon.  Telemedicine visits can also be submitted to your health insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See below for a case study of how I recently used telemedicine with a patient who had a peculiar problem: When Back Pain isn’t just Back Pain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take care,
Cliff Maurer, DC<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virtual consultation case history: When Back Pain Isn\u2019t Back Pain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s an example of how telemedicine was used to resolve a patient issue that had gone undiagnosed for more than a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jerry (not his real name), the boisterous 46-year-old teacher in my virtual consultation room, had developed pain and burning in his back around his right shoulder blade about five weeks earlier. Having just arrived home after a four-hour plane ride, he attributed the pain to being wedged in a middle seat with both arm rests occupied by his neighbors. His pain didn\u2019t worsen with any particular movement or position, but it kept him awake at night. He was especially frustrated that the pain kept him from going to the gym.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a massage didn\u2019t relieve his symptoms, he called the physical therapist who\u2019d helped him with a knee injury a few months back.  Jerry dutifully went in for a few weeks of expertly-delivered manual therapy, muscle release work, dry needling, and rehabilitative exercises. But he wasn\u2019t getting better. After discovering that his primary care doctor couldn\u2019t see him for a few weeks, he made an appointment on my telemedicine schedule, hoping for some answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously with a virtual visit I couldn\u2019t physically examine Jerry, can\u2019t miraculously adjust him through the screen, and can\u2019t do any kind of manual therapy with him. But those things hadn\u2019t helped him, so clearly we needed a different approach in any case.  We went through some examination techniques to evaluate his back, neck, and shoulder, but nothing stood out as a musculoskeletal problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As any good physician will tell you, the devil\u2019s in the details, and most diagnoses can be made by listening to the history of the problem. A brilliant, thoughtful instructor of mine said years ago, \u201cthe patient has the answer \u2013 your job is to listen for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Jerry\u2019s case, she was right. Most musculoskeletal problems get better and get worse with certain movements and positions. Jerry\u2019s pain was there all the time, no matter how he moved. But when I asked him about his general health, lifestyle, and diet, he mentioned that he was on a keto diet (a diet that features specific high-fat content known for \u2013 among other things \u2013 its ability to promote weight loss), hoping it would help him shed a few pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked him if he ever noticed a relationship between his shoulder blade pain and meal time.  \u201cYou know,\u201d he said, \u201cI almost dread eating because about 30 minutes after I sit down and eat my shoulder blade feels like it\u2019s on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my mind, Jerry had solved his own case.  Eating high-fat foods causes the gallbladder to contract and release bile, a substance used to break down fats in the small intestine. If the gallbladder were to contract over, say, a large gallstone, the sensation might range from annoying to excruciating. Most problems like this develop of a long period of months or even years. Eating a high healthy-fat diet merely brought the problem to light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internal organ pain, known as visceral referred pain<\/a>, often doesn\u2019t occur specifically where the organ is located. Rather, the pain usually refers elsewhere (a well-known example of this is pain during a heart attack radiating into the arm and jaw, sometimes missing the chest entirely).\u00a0 One of the most common places for gallbladder pain to refer is to the right shoulder blade<\/a>, and hence, Jerry\u2019s malady became evident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We agreed that this diagnosis might make sense and I quickly referred Jerry for an ultrasound, which confirmed what the radiologist remarked over the phone: that Jerry\u2019s was the biggest, most inflamed gallbladder he\u2019d ever seen; a condition known as cholecystitis<\/a>.\u00a0 A general surgeon colleague of mine got Jerry in for a consultation the next day, and his gallbladder was removed by the end of the week.\u00a0 Jerry\u2019s gallbladder inflammation was gone, along with his shoulder blade pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth mentioning that not all gallbladder problems require surgery. Most can be alleviated via dietary changes and nutritional supplements. \u00a0Our naturopath Dr. Caley Scott<\/a> and nutritionist Olivia Wagner<\/a> can help with this, in-office or via telemedicine.\u00a0 Chinese medicine is also helpful for gallbladder pain.\u00a0 Mari Stecker<\/a> and Sandra Subotich often treat it. Chinese Medicine herbal consultations can also be done via telemedicine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seeing Your Chiropractic Physician via Telemedicine? Absolutely! I know what you\u2019re thinking. ‘How can you possibly give me an adjustment during a video conference?’  The short answer is I can\u2019t, but when coming to our office for an in-person appointment is difficult or impossible, I can continue to help. As a chiropractic physician, I\u2019ve been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,531,120,2333,130,2331,3,2334,43,62],"tags":[505,2139,2140,2141,102,2142,2143,2144,2145],"class_list":["post-21078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-case-studies","category-chiropractic-physical-medicine","category-functional-medicine","category-integrative-medicine","category-internal-medicine","category-knowledge-base","category-naturopathic-medicine","category-nutrition-nutritional-supplements-vitamins-herbal-remedies","category-t","tag-back-pain","tag-cholecystitis","tag-gallbladder","tag-musculoskeletal-pain","tag-pain","tag-shoulder-blade-pain","tag-shoulder-pain","tag-telehealthcare","tag-telemedicine"],"yoast_head":"\r\nTelemedicine: Taking Care of Yourself while Staying Home<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Seeing Your Chiropractic Physician via Telemedicine? 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