I just had it happen again,
and everyone needs to hear this.
An existing patient stopped
into the office, obviously in pain, and wanted to ask me some questions. She
told me she had been in an auto accident five weeks previously, and had left on
vacation shortly after. While she was
out of town her neck and back began to hurt and the pain had increased to the
point where it was constant, and bad enough to make it hard to sleep.
She said she had been the
passenger in a vehicle which had been T-boned and totaled, and asked if I would
be able to help her. I told her that we are very successful in assisting people
to recover from whiplash-type injuries. She told me that she would pay for it,
and I informed her that we either accept Medical Payments coverage, or would
wait until the case was settled, since the accident was not her fault. She said
her cousin (the driver) told her she had no Med-Pay, and that she couldn’t be
treated by me until she saw her medical doctor and had x-rays and an MRI.
I said that her cousin was
incorrect: she did not have to see her medical doctor first, and that any
physician that ordered an MRI without first seeing the x-rays was, at the
least, incompetent. I further stated that it had been my experience that if you
went to the medical doctor first, most would do everything they could to
dissuade you from coming to see a chiropractor, and would instead prescribe
muscle relaxers and painkillers, and possibly physiotherapy, and tell you to be
patient because it would just take time.
She told me that she had
already been to the medical doctor once, and he had said that it would be fine
for her to see a chiropractor, after he had determined that it was necessary.
While I am NOT antagonistic toward most medical doctors, my training did not
qualify me to perform brain surgery, and their training certainly did not
qualify them to evaluate the benefits of chiropractic care. She said she would
be calling me within a week to set up the appointments, and start being
treated.
Here it is, more than TWO
weeks later, and I haven’t heard from her yet. This is a patient who has
already been helped by me for another condition, but she apparently has been
convinced to avoid seeking chiropractic care for her injuries.
Please take note and
understand, NOBODY can tell you what care you have to get – not a relative, not
the insurance company, not your attorney, and certainly not your medical
doctor. Research has shown chiropractic care to be the most effective treatment
for whiplash-type injuries. Chiropractic care can be augmented, but not
replaced, by certain types of physical therapy treatments. Muscle relaxers,
painkillers, and anti-inflammatories cover, but do nothing to heal, the
injuries.
Friends, PLEASE don’t allow
yourself to be suckered or strong-armed into NOT getting the chiropractic care
you NEED. Untreated whiplash injury symptoms get worse as the years go by (why
do you think the insurance companies are so eager to settle as quickly as
possible and be released from liability?), and our Arizona state laws allow two years
after the accident to file a claim. See a chiropractor immediately and start
getting better right away. It will be the best decision you ever made.
Getting rid of your pain,
Dr. Steven Ray, Chiropractor
Val Vista Chiropractic
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