Fortitude Physical Therapy And Performance

This patient had 5-8/10 back pain for over a year, so much so that it was affecting their ability to exercise and perform daily tasks

Their MRI showed 2 herniated discs at L4-L5, and L5-S1, as well as spondylolisthesis (a stress fracture)

Multiple Dr’s said that surgery might be their only option…

So how did they get out of pain without surgery or injections?

Step 1: We stopped poking the bear! Certain activities were making the pain worse, so we modified them to within a tolerable pain level

Step 2: We focused on building their strength and mobility in positions that were pain free!

Step 3: After they were almost completely pain free, we slowly started re-introducing activities that used to be painful in a safe and controlled manner

The end result was this patient getting out of pain completely and back to the things that they love doing!

If this sounds like you, surgery and injections are not your only option,

Choose PT first!

I’ve heard the phrase “Physical Therapy didn’t work for me” far too often 😅

Then once we dig a little deeper into what their care actually looked like…

We find that they were being seen at the same time as 2-4 other patients 👎🏻

Were given easy, cookie cutter exercises 🙅🏼‍♂️

Their goals were never brought up or made a priority 😠

If this sounds familiar, you didn’t fail PT, PT failed you!

💥 Physical Therapy should be challenging, individualized and focus on getting you back to the things you love doing most

Low Back Pain 😓 and Imaging 🔎

It’s estimated that around 84% of people will experience low back pain at some point in their life 🤯

I know personally how scary it can be to have severe back pain that come out of nowhere, leaves you crawling out of bed, and lasts for weeks.

I know what it’s like to just want answers, to know exactly what’s causing the pain so that hopefully you can address it.

However…

Only around 5-10% of people exhibit red flags (signs and symptoms that would suggest a serious pathology) that would require imaging.

The remaining majority of 90-95% have no specific or serious underlying cause.

The underlying cause of low back pain cannot usually be seen on imaging. More often than not, people will have something on their imaging. But there is no way of knowing if this is what is actually CAUSING the pain.

Slide 4 shows the percentage of people, with no symptoms or pain, with findings on their imaging. Around 1/3 of people in their 20’s! have disc degen or a bulging disc, with no pain!

Imaging not only usually doesn’t help, but can makes things worse. People who have gotten imaging have overall worse outcomes and causes increased stress, anxiety and worry.

Low back pain is so nuanced and multi-factorial, this is just scratching the surface.

Like and comment if you’d like to hear more about low back pain!