So, Mykel, we continue our interview. Can I ask how you monitor your patients’ progress through a course of care and make sure that they are progressing as they should?
Mykel – I do this in many different ways. Obviously, monitoring the patient’s symptoms plays a huge part, but the most important part to me is actually seeing functional change in the patient. This is why I do progress exams where I re-do some of the tests that I did when they first came in to directly compare and ensure that things are improving at the rate that I think they should be. I will often bring this review forward if I feel it is necessary.
Can you explain to people what you mean by “functional change”?
What I mean by functional change is rather than just focusing on the symptoms, I want to make sure that my patients can do everything that they want to be able to do. I also want to make sure that the joints are moving as they should be and that the nerves are functioning well. Common things that I’ll test are range of motion to make sure that movement is smooth, even and as good as I would expect for that person.
Can you describe for us a typical course of chiropractic care?
With everyone who comes into Lushington Chiropractic Clinic in Eastbourne, they get a 45-minute to one hour consultation. This is to ascertain exactly what’s going on and to make sure that we are the right people to be treating them at this stage. Once we have ascertained that we are the right place for them, a treatment plan is put together based on our experience and success with previous cases that are similar. Each person is different and therefore care plans will vary and will be adjusted as necessary throughout the course. The initial phase is to help reduce the inflammation and improve the function of the patient, then moving forward making functional change and working as hard as possible to prevent any future episodes.
Can you give me examples of what advice you would give a patient to help prevent future episodes?
It’s very difficult to give specific examples, as each individual patient is different and therefore the advice I give is tailor-made. The most common advice that I will give often comes down to posture. The majority of people these days have very poor posture from desk work, driving, etc., so posture-related and ergonomic advice is incredibly common in my day-to-day practice in Eastbourne.
Mykel, do you usually give people stretches?
I do commonly give stretches, yes. There do tend to be specific stretches that I give as certain areas of the body are more prone to becoming tense than others. Specific stretches that I give to most people are the ones that stretch the tops of the shoulders and the front of the chest. Often, if appropriate, I will recommend that people also see the massage therapists here for stretching and deep-tissue massage techniques, and I will also sometimes recommend yoga or Pilates.
We offer a health class to all new patients here at Lushington Chiropractic in Eastbourne. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
This talk is incredibly useful. I used to give talks like it in my last practice and found that patients who came along to the talk usually did better with their care. This talk gives a little bit of an insight into what we are trying to do as chiropractors, but predominantly is about self-help advice and patients trying not to undo what we have done in the treatments! The Lushington health class talk is generally about an hour long, and in my experience, everyone takes something away from it that they can work on to help themselves get better.
So Mykel, it’s important for patients to participate in their care then?
For the best results, it is absolutely essential.
This interview is continued in Interview with Eastbourne Chiropractor Mykel Mason – Part 3…
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