Meeting a spine doctor? Here’s what you need to know!!

27 Aug Meeting a spine doctor? Here’s what you need to know!!

Meeting with any doctor is a anxious time for anyone of us. But it helps to be a little more prepared to arrive at a shared decision making of your issue.

Let’s stick to your visit to a spine doctor for now. Make sure you know the following points about your spine problem:-

1. The actual location of your pain/problem (neck, mid-back, low back and its radiation to hand or legs). Many people miss the point about which pain bothers them the most .
2. The duration of your pain (days, months or more) and the ‘score’ of your pain on a scale of 10 (0 being no pain, to 10 being the worst pain). Is the pain repetitive in nature (comes every 2-3 months) and is the pain getting progressively worse in its intensity with each ‘attack’.
3. Which activity worsens the pain and which one relieves the pain (like waking, sitting, standing, bending -activities we do in our routine life). Any limitation of these daily activities due to pain and the ‘quality of your life’ affected due to it.
4. Any treatment taken & with what result (helped or not).
5. Associated medical illness and medicines being consumed for the same.(this includes allergies to any tablets).
6. The doctor might ask you to fill some forms as a record in your own words or writing for future reference.

The spine specialist tries to make a mental assessment from your complaints about the ‘origin’ of pain. He tries to confirm that with examination of your spine. So essentially its like solving a jig-saw puzzle. With each of your complaints he tries to compartmentalise your problem into a most probable ‘fit-in’diagnosis. He might ask for further investigations to establish without doubt the cause of your spine pain.

HELP THE DOCTOR TO HELP YOU BETTER!!