5 Things I Hear Almost Every Day as an Airdrie Chiropractor
Spend enough time talking to people about pain and you start hearing the same sentences over and over again. Different people. Different jobs. Different injuries. But surprisingly similar conversations.
After years of treating patients, there are certain things I hear in the clinic almost every day. And what’s interesting is that these seemingly casual comments can tell us quite a bit about how someone has been dealing with their pain.
Here are five of the most common—and what I wish more people knew about them. But after you read this article, YOU will be in the know!
1. "I Thought It Would Just Go Away"
This is likely the most common one I hear.
Someone tweaks their back getting out of the car. Their neck starts bothering them after a long week at work. They wake up one morning with a stiff shoulder.
So they wait.
And that’s not necessarily a bad decision. Many new episodes of musculoskeletal pain improve with time. For example, the World Health Organization notes that most people recover well from acute low back pain.
But there’s a difference between giving your body time to recover and spending months repeatedly waiting for the same problem to disappear. That’s usually when I start asking more questions:
- Is it actually improving?
- Does it keep coming back?
- Is it changing what you can do?
- Are you avoiding certain movements because you’re worried they’ll hurt?
- Is the pain beginning to travel somewhere else?
The goal isn’t to make every ache or pain into something serious. You are alive, you are going to have aches. It’s to recognize when something isn’t following the recovery pattern you’d expect.
If lower back pain has become a recurring part of your life, our Back Pain Treatment in Airdrie page explains more about the different factors we assess when someone comes in with back pain.
2. "I've Had It for Years. I'm Just Used to It."
This one always gets my attention. Just because your check engine light is on all the time because there’s a stubborn sensor that you know is the cause does not mean it is right.
A person might tell me: “My neck has always been tight.” Then a few minutes later: “I get headaches a couple of times a week, but I’ve always had those.” Then: “I can’t really turn my head very far to the left, but that’s been like that forever.”
Individually, each thing has become part of their version of normal.
That’s one reason I don’t only ask, “Where does it hurt?” I also want to know: What have you changed because of it?
Maybe you’ve stopped sleeping on one side. Maybe you’ve changed how you sit at work. Maybe you automatically turn your entire body instead of your neck when backing up the car. Maybe you keep pain medication in your desk because headaches are simply something you’ve learned to expect.
Those details matter.
I’ve written about this before in I Thought Everyone Felt Like This, because one of the easiest things to do with a long-standing symptom is forget that it wasn’t always there.
If recurring neck tension, stiffness, or restricted movement sounds familiar, you can also read about our approach to Neck Pain Treatment in Airdrie.
3. "But I Didn't Even Do Anything."
This one by far is my favourite because it is a really hard concept for patients to grasp. The concept of ‘prolonged stresses over time build up and manifest in symptoms’ is very hard to understand. But it’s no different than developing a cavity in your tooth. Cavities take time to develop, they do not show up overnight.
This usually comes immediately after I ask:
“When did this start?”
And I understand why. We’re conditioned to think pain needs an event.
You fell. You lifted something heavy. You got hit. You were in a car accident.
But sometimes there isn’t a dramatic moment. Instead, someone says:
“I literally just bent down to pick up a sock.” OR: “I woke up and my neck was like this.” The sock probably isn’t the whole story.
Our bodies are exposed to loads all day long: sitting, lifting, carrying kids, repetitive work, exercise, poor sleep, changes in activity and dozens of other factors. Sometimes symptoms appear after an obvious injury. Other times, they develop without one clear event.
That’s why the story leading up to the pain can be just as important as what happened the moment it began. What changed recently? Have you been working longer hours? Did you suddenly increase your workouts? Have you been travelling? Are you sleeping differently? Did you spend the weekend doing a home renovation?
Sometimes the useful clue isn’t “What did you do?” It’s: “What has your body been dealing with lately?”
For people whose symptoms seem connected to work demands, prolonged sitting or repetitive tasks, our Posture & Repetitive Strain Treatment in Airdrie page goes into this in more detail.
4. "I Thought I Just Needed to Stretch More."
Sometimes stretching feels fantastic. Sometimes mobility really is part of the problem.
But if you’ve been stretching the same area every day for six months and it still feels tight an hour later, I want to know why you continually feel the need to stretch it.
That’s a different question. We may need to look at:
- How the surrounding joints are moving
- What activities trigger the tightness
- Strength and control
- Work or training demands
- Previous injuries
- How frequently the symptom returns
The sensation of tightness is information.
Repeatedly stretching it without understanding why it keeps returning doesn’t necessarily answer the underlying question. This is especially common with the neck, shoulders, hips and lower back.
5. "Then Why Does It Hurt Over Here?"
This is probably my favourite conversation. A patient points to their leg. I start examining their lower back.
They look at me like I’ve forgotten where they told me it hurts.
Or someone comes in because of headaches and we start examining their neck. Or they’re complaining about their shoulder and we also want to see how their neck and upper back are moving.
That’s because where you experience pain isn’t always where the relevant problem begins.
Sciatica is a straightforward example. Someone may experience symptoms in the:
- Buttock
- Thigh
- Calf
- Foot
Yet the symptoms can be related to irritation involving a spinal nerve root. Similarly, certain types of headaches can involve structures in the neck. That’s why we don’t necessarily stop our examination at the exact spot someone points to.
I recently wrote an entire article about this called Why Pain Isn’t Always Where the Problem Is.
If you’ve ever wondered why we’re looking somewhere other than where you hurt, that’s the one I’d read next.
Why We Ask About More Than Your Spine
There’s another question patients don’t necessarily say out loud: “Why are you asking me all of this?”
Sleep. Work. Exercise. Stress. Previous injuries. What makes the symptoms better. What makes them worse. What you’ve stopped doing. What you want to get back to doing.
These aren’t filler questions.
Pain is more complicated than simply finding a sore structure. The International Association for the Study of Pain recognizes that pain is a personal experience influenced to varying degrees by biological, psychological and social factors.
That doesn’t mean pain is imaginary.
Quite the opposite.
It means understanding the person experiencing the pain can be just as important as understanding the painful body part.
It’s something I learned personally during chiropractic school when I experienced weeks of intense mid-back pain during finals. I wrote about what happened in I Didn’t Realize Stress Could Feel Like This.
That experience still influences the questions I ask patients today.
What All Five Comments Have in Common
There’s a theme running through all of these conversations. People are usually trying to make sense of what their body is doing. And that’s really what an assessment should help accomplish.
Not:
“Your back hurts. Let’s treat your back.”
But:
When did this start? What seems to aggravate it? What has changed? What are you no longer able to do comfortably? What else might be contributing?
And most importantly:
What does the examination actually show?
Sometimes the answer is relatively straightforward. Sometimes it isn’t. But asking better questions gives us a much better place to start.
A final thought from inside the clinic
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from having these conversations every day, it’s that patients usually know more about their problem than they think they do. They may not know the diagnosis. They may not know which joint, muscle or nerve is involved.
And they shouldn’t have to. But they’ll often give us an important clue without realizing it:
“It always happens after…” “It feels better when…” “I stopped doing…” “It started around the same time as…”
That’s why we listen. Because sometimes the most useful part of an assessment isn’t the first place you point to.
It’s the story that explains how you got there. If you’ve been dealing with pain or stiffness that keeps returning and you’re ready to understand what’s contributing to it, you can book an assessment at our Airdrie clinic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I see a chiropractor every time something hurts?
Not necessarily. Many minor aches and pains improve on their own. An assessment may be appropriate when symptoms are persistent, recurring, worsening, affecting normal activities, or when you’re unsure what’s causing them. Sudden severe symptoms, significant trauma or other concerning symptoms may require medical evaluation.
Why does pain sometimes appear without an injury?
Not every musculoskeletal problem begins with one obvious event. Changes in activity, repetitive loading, work demands, recovery, previous injuries and other factors can all be relevant, which is why a detailed history is useful. Repeated stresses over time can lead to pain, seemingly out of nowhere.
Why does my chiropractor ask about sleep, work and stress?
Because pain is influenced by more than anatomy alone. Understanding sleep, activity, work demands, stress and other aspects of someone’s life can provide useful context when assessing persistent or recurring pain.
Why would a chiropractor examine an area that doesn't hurt?
Symptoms can sometimes be referred or related to structures away from the painful area. Sciatica and certain neck-related headaches are examples. Examining related areas can help determine what may—or may not—be contributing to the symptoms.
Pickled Red Onions
10
minutes5
minutesThis is such a simple and yet awesome recipe. These pickled red onions are so versatile and tasty. Add to anything BBQ and you will love it!
Ingredients
1 medium red onion
1 cup vinegar
2 Tbsps salt
2 Tbsps sugar
Directions
Take onion and slice thinly. You choose which way you want to cut. I like to cut both ends off and then cut vertically in full circles. DO NOT DISCARD PEEL AND CUTS.
Take all components (except sliced onions) and place in a small pot. Heat up while mixing and the liquid will turn a nice pink colour.
Place sliced onions in a pickling jar. Add liquid from pot to the jar. That's it! This will keep in the fridge for a few months!
