What to expect on your second visit
Hey there. I'm Dr. James Fedich.
I'm the clinic director here at Village Family Clinic. Myself or any of the doctors will be in just a few minutes to go over your exam results.
Before we get started today, I just want to go over a couple quick things here at the office.
Three questions that we always get asked on the second visit are:
What's wrong with me? Can you fix it? And how much can it cost?
That's our three objectives for today's visit. Your doctor's going to go over what's wrong with you, your unique plan on how to fix it, and our front desk staff will go over all your financial obligations—if there are any.
In addition to that, we're going to go over some different things about your health and wellness.
I just want to explain a couple of things with you today.
This little chart we use a lot of times to explain how we're going to get better—we call it the Road to Recovery chart.
So right now, most people come to our office down here in pain. What most people do over the series in the next couple weeks is they come in and they feel a lot better—we tend to cross this pain line here.
At that point, we usually have a decision to make. Some patients choose to continue with their care, get up this green healthy line—but unfortunately, a lot of patients go crisscross this pain line their whole life.
So they feel a little better, we stop our treatment, wait a little while, the problem comes back, they come in regularly again for a few weeks, feel better, and they kind of live their whole life struggling on this pain line.
Well, we'll certainly be happy to help you on that level. We'd really like you to live as healthy as possible by getting as much pressure off those nerves, get you feeling good, living good, and then get you on a nice wellness program.
So typically, it takes a few weeks—six to eight weeks—to get people really feeling better, where you're coming in regularly. The way to keep it that way is to do wellness care, which is usually two times a month for us at the clinic, just to keep your body in tip-top operating shape.
Pro athletes all do it. All sorts of celebrities are getting adjusted two or three times a month. So that's where our initial goal for you is.
Another thing with pain—we tell people to think about it like a smoke alarm.
A lot of times, your fire alarm's going off in your office. That's like the smoke detector.
Now if we just pull that battery out of the smoke detector, it doesn't mean the fire has been resolved.
A lot of times, that's what covering up pain does—whether that's taking aspirin or a pain pill, or just coming into the chiropractor for a few weeks just to get rid of pain.
So while we're happy to do that for you, we really want you to get a pain-free life.
Here's another chart you'll see in the clinic here, called our Phases of Care chart.
Most people, again, come in our office in pain—a lot of times due to nerve pressure in the spine.
Our first goal of care is to get you out of pain as soon as possible. We're going to do everything we can to do that.
Once you're again—most of the time, we cross that pain line, we get you feeling better typically in six to eight weeks.
Once you cross that line, two things can happen.
Some people will discontinue care, and the problems can come back.
Sometimes even the human body will kind of fight us a little bit.
So patients typically—a lot of times around four weeks—are feeling really good.
But then sometimes we have a little slide back before we get better.
That first phase—crossing the pain line.
The second phase here, we call the healing area.
We're really trying to heal the tissue underneath. A lot of times, we can now be coming less often during this phase.
And then again, we want to get into this wellness strengthening phase as soon as possible.
So we get the pressure off the nerve, then we'll have the bone just barely off the nerve, then we want to make sure we're really correcting your spine.
I kind of tell people—think about one hand on the other.
If it should be this far away, you don't feel it. You don't feel it—until the day it touches you by hand.
The opposite's also true. As we get just a little pressure off that, you feel a lot better.
We really want to try to correct that as much as possible so it doesn't keep coming back.
So that's our final phase—strengthening phase—where you're coming in a couple times a month just to keep it in tip-top shape.
This is another handy chart you'll see in the office here, called a nerve chart.
Sometimes people come in the office or are getting chiropractic care, and they'll tell us other things are feeling better.
So they came in for back pain—maybe they noticed their digestion’s better.
Middle back pain—they’re breathing better, lungs are functioning better, etc.
So this chart—we just like to show people:
A lot of times, if we have an irritated nerve in the neck, that can come up and cause headaches or shoulder pain.
The lower part of the neck—we could be getting arm and shoulder pain.
So even if you're coming in for neck pain, we might be able to get that arm and shoulder pain feeling better as we release some pressure off the nerves.
The really interesting part is when we get to the middle back and the lower back, where all your organs go to—come from nerves.
So the brain comes down, spinal cord comes down throughout the spinal cord. These nerves exit and go to every cell, tissue, and organ in the body.
So it’s the irritation of these nerves in the spine that can cause a problem anywhere else—including your major organs, like your bladder, bowel, stomach—all those kinds of things.
If one of those nerves gets irritated, it might be the one that goes to the spleen, or the lungs, or the kidney.
In the lower back, some will go to the genitalia area, and the rest really go down the back of the leg and the sciatic.
So a lot of times, as you're undergoing care, you'll find benefits in other parts of the human body that you didn't necessarily know about. You might feel yourself just feeling healthy, and things working better—and that's one of our goals here for you as well.
Alright. So from now on, your visits will be really quick and easy here at the office.
We've got all the paperwork done after today.
From now on, when you come in:
- You can enjoy our refreshment or snack station. We have free Starbucks coffee.
- Then just go up right up front, check in at the front desk.
- Someone will check you in. Your appointment will be made if needed.
- Your payment will be taken if needed as well.
- They’ll then direct you where to go.
If you're doing laser therapy, you'll come over here to our cold laser machine. Over this way is our spinal decompression base—they'll send you right over to Room 4.
If you're getting adjusted, they'll send you to the proper bay—A, B, C, or D.
Come on down!
It's really important to lay face down before the adjustment to let the muscles relax so that your doctor can get a proper adjustment.
So take everything out of your pockets, go ahead face down, and on your way down, hit the green button that you'll see on all these tables.
That's going to cause the table to flex, and that's going to help loosen up your spine before your adjustment.
Your doctor will be with you really shortly after that.
For the vast majority of you, you'll be doing some therapy after your adjustment.
Over this way, you will see the therapy tables—a series of four or five therapy tables for muscle stimming, ultrasound, and those types of therapies.
If you're doing that, one of the staff will be happy to assist you after.
I want to personally welcome you to the clinic.
I think you're going to enjoy great health and wellness here. If there's anything you need, you let me or the front desk staff know, and we're happy to help you out.
