Neck and upper shoulder pain

One out of my five neck and upper shoulder pain patients was very curious why I was focus on postural correction and more on Tx area on the day of this patient’s initial visit.

First of all, English was not this patient’s first language, thus it took more than it should on SE. It was difficult to obtain the correct information from this patient as expected; however, this patient was required huge amount of time on explanation of SE questions. I did not mind taking longer to explaining since I could relate it to myself; however, it needed to be rushed to go through the initial Ax due to I was under pressure with time Mx.

Second, this patient never had any physio Rx before and did not have any information regarding physiotherapy beside massage. That’s quite common in general, and I am capable to educate these people who don’t know much about physio that there are lots of Rx that we can provide and also importance of self-Mx.

What made me more difficult treating this patient was informing this patient to focus in different area where this patient did not complain about. I assume it was not that much of issue if I explained to English speakers, even though my English was not good enough. Letting the non-English speaker understand the simple and basic concept of treating on or dealing with different area was really challenged for me. Obtaining informed consent was even harder due to the patient was still in doubt.

During Rx, I was stopped by this patient many times and told where the actual pain was. I assumed this patient thought I did not understand what this patient’s problem was since I was non-English speaker as well. About the point where the postural education was introduced, this patient got very curious why. That was the last intervention for the day, thus all I could say was ‘just trust me’ to the patient. I was sure the patient was still uncertain. At the end of the session, the patient was emphasized on HEP which included correcting posture.

By the third visit, this patient got so much better in posture and Sx. This patient was very happy with the progress and not much c/o pain.

What I have learnt from this was it is sometimes better to leave it less word and let the patient see the improvement first. I thought it worked well on this patient, because this patient was curious what the outcome would be from Rx and self-Mx. Fortunately, I have got enough trust from this patient and this patient was able to see good progress by following HEP what was told to do in such a short period of time.