Dog walking & Acupuncture
So a few months back whilst walking our youngest canine family member I bumped into an acquaintance, as you do. Chit chat occurred, as it does!
This Chap had had a knee replacement many months previously so I assumed all was now good. Wrong!, he is still having problems, reduced range of movement and chronic pain. He had been back for follow up post surgery and despite outlining his concerns he was informed by the Orthopaedic Surgeon that all is fine from their perspective and duly discharged from their care.
My daughter aged 10 (a great advocate for Essex Acupuncture Room) was on the walk and straight away piped up what about Acupuncture? cue awkward moment. Evangelical though I am about this medicine, I don’t necessarily go on about my clinic to local folk who show no interest. So I briefly highlighted a couple of very recent clinic successes for pre- and post- surgery knee issues and left it at that. Further random chit chat ensued and then off we merrily went.
My daughter was majorly excited saying at least he is going to “try”. In reality what the chap actually said, was well, em, er…… I’m going to go back to the GP to get re-referred [insert the number of months you think this may take] and who knows I “might” come your way after that.
Reading between the lines, read,”I know you are on the doorstep & I am in pain BUT I have been brought up to believe that the NHS can fix everything so I am sticking to what I know.
Now this neatly ties up with the current TV show Hospital. Our beloved NHS has hospitals bursting at the seams. It’s obviously not sustainable to continue as it stands, not for patients nor staff.
Surely it is the responsibility of each and everyone of us to lighten the load of the NHS, where possible. In a lot of cases it’s about managing pain, mobility and effects of long term chronic conditions. There are a ton of options out there for folk to chose to manage these issues. Obviously you all know my preference.
Take Home Point; going outside our comfort zone can be challenging but oh so surprisingly rewarding.