Happy middle of September! Those of you reading this, we are chugging through 2020 and hoping it ends sooner rather than later. It has been flying the past few weeks and that may be because of my renewed love for READING! YES! People do still read. Lately I have been absorbed in a book called CRISP (Clinical Reasoning in Spine Pain for the Lower back). One of the main topics in the book is how the doctor’s and patient’s attitudes and emotions toward back pain change the pain and treatment experience dramatically. This may make sense to some of us, but it is WAY more important than has been noted in the past!

I wanted to share some of this information with ya’ll so that we can talk and think about this important topic. I personally have always viewed my personal pains as a warning sign to slow down. My coaches, parents, and doctors would tell me to push through muscle soreness but stop and let everyone know when other pains were present. This book CRISP brought this idea to the surface and asked: why? Is pain really that special? The answer is….sometimes. However, sometimes pain can linger after a tiny injury for months and cause worry when nothing is PHYSICALLY wrong. Our bodies pain response plays tricks on us.

As a doctor, I NEVER want to downplay someone’s pain experience. This CRISP book said this is so important. Whenever any of us are patients, we need our doctors to LISTEN and have EMPATHY and find a solution for us. Just because we may dramatize or obsess over the pain does not make it any less real. It can effect life in so many ways from stopping sports play, reducing time playing with grandkids, or preventing working or keeping up with daily activites. So OF COURSE we care and get emotional!

For anyone interested in the modern approach to back pain, CRISP is THE book to start reading. For those interested in these emotional and attitude components of pain, message me! This book has showed me that my thinking toward pain has given it too much power in my life and will definitely have too much power in my future patient’s life. I cannot wait to put this to practice as I start treating patients in the clinic in a few short weeks!!