How Often Should I Be Seeing My Osteopath?
In an ideal world, the answer is simple: Not [often].
However, unless you are a time-traveller from a future where humanity has eliminated want, disease, stress, and war, you probably don’t live in an ideal world.
If you are, for the love of sanity tell us how we got there, and how you dealt with in-laws in particular (Just joking, Maria and Terry! I love you all)!
If you are, for the love of sanity tell us how we got there, and how you dealt with in-laws in particular (Just joking, Maria and Terry! I love you all)!
Life is, always has been, and always will be…
…waiting for our time-traveller to chime in and tell us it’s all going to be ok...
...full of challenges and stresses. That is why, when it comes to managing the various aches and pains that crop up as we make our merry way in this floating rock of a circus barrelling through space, we emphasise having multiple management strategies.
…waiting for our time-traveller to chime in and tell us it’s all going to be ok...
...full of challenges and stresses. That is why, when it comes to managing the various aches and pains that crop up as we make our merry way in this floating rock of a circus barrelling through space, we emphasise having multiple management strategies.
There will always be things that get in the way of us living our ideal lives. If I had ten bucks for every time I’ve heard “I haven’t done my exercises as often as I’d have liked”, well, I’d only need to work one day a week, put it that way!
This is normal. This is OK. When the rocks and shoals in life’s waters make it difficult to use our preferred management strategies, whether that be your home exercise program, a yoga class, going to the gym, swimming etc, it is important to have other options.
This is why we actually do not recommend that your practitioner be your first and only line of defence. What do you do if I go on holiday? What happens if your osteopath breaks their arm while pursuing their exciting but ill-advised hobby of para-snowboarding? Who do you turn to when your therapist moves to another city?
This is one of the major reasons we put such emphasis on self-management at Moreland Road Clinic Osteopathy. We recommend that extended exercise session so we can give you a few things that you can do straight away, yourself, at home, and with minimal equipment (we’ve probably given you some Theraband!). Even if you don’t particularly enjoy doing them once you’ve got home at the end of a long day, or find it difficult to sneak away from the family to do exercises (or whatever!), the option is there if your other strategies are precluded.
Depending on your constraints (work, family, etc) and your interests (you might find jogging boring as hell, for example), some management strategies are going to fit into your life better than others. Sometimes you have to make compromises.
My wife does not particularly enjoy jogging, but it requires no special equipment, there are no recurring fees, and you can start as soon as you leave your house (with appropriate warm-up, of course!), being back within a half-hour or hour. As she puts it, doing a class would mean being gone for longer, would cost more, and has to be done at the same time every week; whereas a jog can be fit in wherever. If you are time-poor, these are powerful arguments.
There are certainly instances in which a regular (but infrequent, ideally) session with your osteopath can help save you more time, elsewhere.
It might also be that the things you enjoy doing as a hobby or sport are contributing to your issues (looking at you, Aussie Rules!), but you don’t want to give them up. You then need something to help counteract that.
Whatever your strategies are*, it is a good idea to have as wide a range as possible.
Whatever your strategies are*, it is a good idea to have as wide a range as possible.
*and remember! These can and do include pharmacological management, i.e. medications. Like relying on somebody else in the form of your osteopath (for example), relying only on medications for your main management strategy is not advised. For one thing, very few medications come with no side-effects whatsoever, and generally most pain-related medications get less effective with time, a process known as habituation.
As mentioned, one of these is, or probably should be, appropriate assessment and treatment with your osteopath.
It is certainly worth giving us a call if you have a flare-up of your symptoms. It might be that after a thorough assessment, we offer the sage advice that this just seems to the same old culprits causing trouble, and we need to stick to our strategies to calm down our “genius four year old” nervous systems. Or we may identify new factors that need to be addressed. If everything feels very familiar and there is nothing new or concerning (remember! You are the world’s only known expert on you!), feel free to press on with your normal mobilisations, stretches, etc., and see if she’ll be right holds true after a few days. If you have any concerns at all though, please do see somebody to have those addressed.
If you have a new issue, likewise, it is often worth having it assessed so that potentially sinister causes can be ruled out as likely candidates, and your management strategies formulated. While things are still acute, this will likely involve some treatment to help remove any barriers to tissue healing, while stopping our tantruming four year old from overestimating the danger. Once things have settled down a bit, the emphasis will be placed more and more on your other strategies, preferably ones more under your control.
Obviously, everything depends. While the benefits of “maintenance treatment” (often defined as treatment where there are no actual presenting symptoms, sort of a ‘just in case’ or ‘keeping everything aligned’ type approach) are hotly contested**,
**It is very difficult to know – or to test – whether or not someone who has not developed further issues would have done had they not received the ‘maintenance’ treatments.
Do you ever feel a bit... ...overloaded?? There are circumstances where the factors maintaining your issues are so entrenched and/or numerous that you cannot keep on top of everything yourself. In these instances your osteopath may suggest periodic, but as infrequent as possible, sessions to help keep everything on track. The general suggestion at our clinic is that, if you receive your reminder text message and everything seems to be going well, respond to reschedule, and push it back by a number of weeks. That way your issues receive early and prompt intervention if required, but you do not attend unnecessary appointments.
It also helps to get around the “I’ve been meaning to book for ages, but haven’t gotten around to it” issue, which is of course also related to the problem of fitting in management strategies to already-busy lives.
It also helps to get around the “I’ve been meaning to book for ages, but haven’t gotten around to it” issue, which is of course also related to the problem of fitting in management strategies to already-busy lives.
So, how often should you see your osteopath?
Obviously, it will vary.
But if they are doing their job, and you are doing yours, it shouldn’t have to be too frequent.
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