Dooley Noted: 1/10/2014
Last night, I dissected a submandibular triangle. This is the space right below the chin and off to the side.
A bevy of important structures exist in this space, which is half the size of the palm.
As I inched my face closer and closer to the cadaver, I saw only a nerve strand I was aiming to find. As I pieced everything around it away, I realized I had been dissecting a piece of fascia that I THOUGHT was a nerve.
I sat back and looked at the big picture. From a distance, I saw exactly for what I was looking.
Every single one of us does this way too much in life.
As a clinician, I have learned the macro view is far more important than the micro view. But referred patients have rarely experienced an observation of their big picture.
Every day in the office, I hear the following:
“I have a disc herniation.” Micro.
“I have rotator cuff tendinitis.” Micro.
“I have knee pain.” Micro.
The three above examples are the micro view, with clinicians zooming in. And that is one approach.
But I receive myriad information with the macro.
Look away from the micro to understand why the focus is on it.
To fix the micro, the macro must be assessed and corrected.
But as always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley