Checking-in on Checking-in!
Good morning, everybody! This is Jay, your friendly neighborhood Office Manager. I have wrestled away the keyboard from Dr. Super for this blog post.
Everyday that I come to work I have the privilege of seeing patients come in, get treatment, and return to live their busy lives. Our practitioners get to watch closely as your body heals and adapts to the stressors of life and they discuss your goals and how you can achieve them. A lot of patients have goals that initially focus on experiencing less pain, avoiding a surgery, or managing a chronic issue. Chiropractic care can have many improvements aside from pain like, better sleep, better mood, better immune function, and more! While I do not partake in the physical healing process, I do help with a different important role: check-in.
Now, I work at the front desk, so of course I do the check-ins, but in this case I’m referring to a different type of check-in. I get to check-in on how patients are doing and encourage them to do that with themselves! Improvements can be hard to notice when healing happens over time, especially with complex or multiple issues, but having check-ins with yourself can allow you the opportunity to take notice of how far you have come. When I check a patient out after an appointment I usually ask some variation of, “How are you feeling?”. One common response is, “Yeah, I’m feeling pretty good.” Some patients who have severe or complex conditions may respond with “Yeah, we are starting to get there.”
My absolute favorite response usually comes after committing to care for about a month or two. I’ll ask the same question of “How are you feeling?” The patient will have a moment where they consider my question a little bit more, take a breath, and respond with something along the lines of, “You know, I feel really good.” They are doing a check-in! They can recognize that they are able to do more than they could when they started. These changes may start small, these changes aren’t small at all when they can bring joy back into peoples' lives.
A big difference in philosophy between our office and the general health care system is salutogenesis. The goal of salutogenesis is to treat the root of the problem, not to focus on symptoms like pain (see Dr. Super’s blog post:Why Philosophy is Important in Medicine:The three pillars, Part One for more information on salutogensis). Let’s be honest, many patients end up using chiropractic care as a last resort. A thing to finally try when nothing else has worked or no one else will listen. We see a lot of patients who come to us with a lot of pain and we try to redirect the focus away from that pain. When an issue isn’t being treated properly, pain is a constant companion. A reminder that something is wrong, and frankly it sucks a lot. However, wanting the pain to be gone is just a part of the overall picture.
A lot of the frustration that comes with having an injury or condition can come from feeling like there are activities that your body will no longer do. There is a part of life that you can’t participate in. Recognizing this through check-ins helps patients realize that they have reached goals that they didn’t even know that they had. They can walk without a limp or being hunched over. They can go bowling for the first time in years. They can do all the housework without needing pain meds. Whatever your goals are, take notice of all your improvements!
I see people in all different stages of their health journeys and through check-ins, I get to share in the small triumphs. I get to see patients have the realization that chiropractic is something that can help them do the things that they want to do. Doing these check-ins matter! They can bring you peace of mind. The healing process can be such a mental exercise. We all would love it if recovery were instantaneous, but unfortunately it is not. As I mentioned before, so many patients come to us after months or even years of struggling with pain and physical limitations, so we meet them where they are at. That can come with a lot of mental fatigue after dealing with an issue for such a long time, and using these check-ins can really help to combat that fatigue. Our business is based on the mission of improving the health of our community. The goal for treatment is whatever the patient decides, but everything we do will always be with the purpose of working towards improving their overall health.
If you do set smaller goals or take a progress report of your journey, please share them with us! Hearing patients talk about the ways in which their lives have improved or reading the stories that people leave for us in our reviews really affirm our own beliefs. They show us that we are truly helping those in our community to have a better quality of life. So the next time you check-out, expect me to check-in!
I truly hope you have a Super day!
Jay (they/them)