BY DR. ARNAN SISSON

22 JANUARY 2019

When I first opened by back practice, I really wanted folks to get a good feel of the how we do things. It’s dramatically different than the traditional physical therapy model and even our treatment approach is fairly unique.

So, with that in mind, I decided to create a Discovery session for the clinic. This is a free 20-minute session where I first determine if someone is a good fit for my practice. Then I ask a few questions, perform a few tests, and can give the person a great idea of what is likely causing their back troubles and an approach to fix it.

We’ve continued to do these for one reason. And that’s because folks really enjoy getting a sample of what we can do before they full commit, and this is refreshing because most folks have tried weeks and weeks of traditional physical therapy or chiropractic adjustments for many years with no improvement. So, they are rightfully suspicious if we can truly help them or not. And these sort of sessions helps those folks understand that what we do is truly different and works.

A new client of mine named Barbara came in months ago with that same mind set, and she ultimately became convinced we could help her after a discovery session. Her story was pretty interesting and is worth telling. It show’s how a purse can very easily kill your back!

So, Barbara came into the clinic with excruciating back pain. It was a clear 10/10 that almost had her going to the floor. Her back was so angry that she was taking 6 Tylenols each day, couldn’t sleep more than 1-2 hours at a time, and couldn’t tolerate sitting on her couch more than 5-10 minutes.

The worst part of this was that she tried a few chiropractic adjustments and even some traditional physical therapy. But after a few weeks her pain had gotten worse.

The one thing I noticed above anything else when she was walking in was her purse. It was huge! And it was physically pulling her down towards that side creating a bend in her back. I asked her how long she had that purse. She replied that its been with her for 4-5 years ,and she takes it everywhere with her.

I asked a few more questions and did a few more tests. And at the end of the Discovery session I gave her only one homework assignment before she would call me back. It was to not use the purse for a few days. Next, was to cut the weight in half. And then finally she was to alternate what shoulder she had the purse on throughout the day.

She called back in 3-4 days, and guess what? Her pain was cut in half! It turned out the purse was a huge cause of her back troubles. It was repeatedly placing her back in an awful position. And the homework we gave her positioned her in a more natural position.

I’m proud to say that this purse modification brought her pain dwon a good bit. And then one or two additional treatments we gave her completely relieved the pain. But the moral of the story is, if you have a purse and back pain. This strategy is worth trying! Its very likely that the above stress could be at least a part of your back troubles.

If you’re in a similar boat as Barbara then please shoot us a call at (804) 493-0002 or click here to set up your free 20 minute Discovery Session, so we can help you. That’s it for today everyone. Remember movement is medicine!