Colleague’s email: “Patient presents with bilateral shoulder hike and MSE DN. L5 radiculopathy worsened on extension. What would you do?”
They don’t tell you in chiropractic school you’ll be spending 6 figures on an education where people ask advice without writing, “Hello,” first, or without even asking politely for help.
That faux pas set aside, I answered with the truth.
Dooley: “I’m sorry, but I don’t know. Your patient is not my patient.”
I am not a machine that spits out a cookie cutter answer. That would be easier, but it wouldn’t be honest.
People are dynamic.
We have many similarities, but we program our movement based upon our individual sensory experience.
Therefore, I have no clue what I would do with your patient until that patient is in front of me.
Also, I am not a machine that robotically responds to emails. I think carefully about how I respond to each one, even if care wasn’t taken with how it was delivered to me.
If you are cranking your patients through a machine-like process, then that may be why you get limited results.
Pay attention. Test, and corroborate findings with more tests. Have a system, but don’t be a machine that tunes out.
I’m here to help, but please ask like a human. You aren’t a machine, either.
Have a great week.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley