Tag Archives: surgery

Chiropractic and Carpal Tunnel

I’d like to share an amazing success story with you that involves chiropractic and carpal tunnel. I had a patient, let’s call her Sue. She came to our office with carpal tunnel symtoms. She had surgery 6 months ago for her carpal tunnel. Sue said the surgery gave her about 6 months of relief, but now the same exact symptoms she was having before her surgery were back again. Sue was frustrated. She had this surgery and is essentially back to where she was day 1. During our consult together I asked her how her neck feels. She responded with “my neck hurts all the time, but it’s my hands that concern me because they are numb.” I continued to ask some basic history questions. I learned that no doctor had ever looked at or examined her neck in the past. This is important because there are certain levels in your neck that send nerves down into your hands and arms. Before opting to have a surgery, ensure that all possible causes of carpal tunnel have been investigated.

We started the exam with looking at Sue’s neck. I examined the area by feeling the muscles, the spinal alignment and motion, and various orthopedic tests. Their was a lot of muscles tightness, spinal restrictions, forward head posture and signs of nerve impingement. The icing on the cake was the neck X-rays we took. The X-rays showed degeneration at the C4-C6 levels. This is the exact area the nerves leave the spine and travel down into the arm and hand. I explained all this to Sue and asked her if she was ready to start healing and feeling better. Of course she was ready! She had been suffering with this for too long.

Chiropractic Treament

We began treatment right away. Our visits together initially consisted of chiropractic adjustments and some muscle work. As Sue’s neck started to feel better and have less tension, we started working on posture correction as well. Within 3 visits she started noticing relief and improvements. Her neck feeling better, she had less numbness and tingling in her hands and more strength in her hands. She stated she was having less headaches and more energy which I didn’t even know were issues to begin with! (Please tell your chiropractor about all your symptoms!)

10 visits into Sue’s chiropractic treatment and she was feeling so much better. She was feeling better than she could have imagined. I’m excited to see her continual progress and at the end of her treatment plan we will take some updated X-rays to see the changes her spine has undergone. Not only do I want to know she is feeling better, I want to see that we made physical changes to her spinal structure, so we know it’s a long-term correction and not just a band-aid fix.

Do You Have Carpal Tunnel

Have you been diagnosed with carpal tunnel? Have you been told that you need to have a surgery? Chiropractic and carpal tunnel can be a life changer for you. I urge you to schedule an appointment with a chiropractor. In my office we will do a full history, examination and X-rays of necessary. If I cannot help you, I will help to point you in the right direction of someone who can. Stories like Sue’s are not uncommon in my office. My goal is to help people avoid unnecessary medications and surgeries. Give us a call or request an appointment online, I’d love to help you!

Dr. Steven Bourdage DC

Surgeon

Surgery? No Thanks!

Surgery? No Thanks!

I attended a recent workshop by a local Orthopedic surgeon. It was a very informative session. The topic discussed was new procedures for the knee and shoulder joints. The procedures he discussed are new, non-surgical alternatives for people who are still having pain after trying natural methods to heal first. This was a great workshop because most surgeons like to do surgery. This was a surgeon discussing ways to help people avoid surgery. Modern medicine has realized that people want less invasive and more natural methods to healing. People are more educated than ever and they realize that just numbing something or cutting it out is not going to fix the problem!

This blog post is going to be about something the orthopedic surgeon said that I will never forget. He said, “The system is set up so that all roads lead to surgery.” He went on to explain that if you enter the medical system with a pain, the protocol is to prescribe muscle relaxers, pain killers or anti-inflammatories. Or in most cases, some combination of 2 or 3 of these. If this does not help someone to feel better then you continue the medications and start physical therapy. He said this is where the issues begin. Not because of physical therapy, but because of physical therapy while on medications. Taking these medications which interfere with your pain perception, your tissues are not in their normal states. Now you are doing these exercises that can be causing further damage, but you can’t feel it! The pain is there as a protective mechanism. If you can’t feel the pain you may be working beyond the limits that you should be. Therefore, this leads to more problems. If this fails, this is when you end up on the surgeon’s table.

Chiropractic

I am writing about this because chiropractic offers a different route. We embrace the pain. We figure out why you are having pain and then work to correct that, not just merely cover it up. If you are looking to avoid surgery and get healthier without the use of medications, I am here for you!

 

Have you gone down this route that has led to surgery? Would you do it again? I’d love to hear more about it in the comments below.

Why Medical Doctors Think Chiropractic Doesn’t Work

Why Medical Doctors Think Chiropractic Doesn’t Work

This is a very important topic I am going to write about today. This still comes up occasionally in our office, but in reality not that much anymore. I have more medical doctors as patients now than I ever have in 11 years of practice. After having discussions with them and thinking about this topic, I have answers as to why medical doctors think chiropractic doesn’t work.  Continue reading →