What happens next when I am feeling better after treatment?
I have been asked this question a lot lately in clinic….”so I am here now with an injury/complaint, what happens next when I am feeling better after treatment…?” I really like this question as I have so many patients that do everything that they are not meant to. For example, in Chinese medicine we are slightly against running due to long term injury of knees, ankles, joints and ligaments, yet in this country running is almost like a rite of passage. Even more so on cold wet rainy Auckland days runners are out in force….a big no no in Chinese medicine. My runners who love running 5,10,15 kms 2,3,4 times a week for mental health but then realise their Achilles are sore, or the knees are giving them some grief, or their calves are cramping, they then ask why? As I work with them in clinic and give them treatment, we see a change within their main complaint, yet more often than not they say “…well this is why I am here so you can fix me so I can keep doing what I enjoy doing regardless of the effect on my body…”
Having worked with many ACC patients, and even patients that come into clinic as private patients with varying degrees of complaints from chronic to acute, I have found most patients once their complaint has been addressed don’t come back until it re-appears or there is another injury. What I now believe in clinic is that once we are on top of your original complaint, coming in every four to six weeks for a treatment to help rebalance the body and qi dynamics can help prevent injury re-occurrence or further/different complaints to arise.
Please don’t be fooled that this is a marketing tool, but when we look at the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) model, our bodies are a constantly dynamically moving energy force. When injury occurs (this can be internal, external, a common cold, Covid, childbirth or a broken arm for example) we work in clinic to fix the immediate and obvious complaint, but what many patients dismiss is that the qi is constantly moving, we are living life and injury can occur at any one time. This can be as simple as a stressful day or week at work, liver qi stagnates and next minute you are complaining of tight neck and shoulders or tension headaches.
My point being here is that once we have treated your first complaint, don’t stop there…. make a commitment to your health and stop into clinic on a regular basis that suits your lifestyle, come in for a tune up every 4-6 weeks…. treat yourself to some ‘you’ time…. your body, mind and health will thank you for it. Call it your own body warrant of fitness (WOF).