Welcome to the Musculoskeletal Pain Blog!  As a primary care sports medicine physician (a doctor who treats bone, muscle, and joint problems without surgery), I see patients of all ages and ability levels who are troubled by pain.  They want to know what they can do to feel better.  They frequently ask questions about treatment options like, “What can I expect from this?”  “Is it safe?”  “How long will it take to work, and how long will it last?”  “If this doesn’t work, will I need to have surgery?”  

Doctors sometimes forget that what they know is not common knowledge (or even common interest) to most people.  Therefore, in this blog, I want to “draw back the curtain,” so to speak, on what we know about treating musculoskeletal pain so we can make better decisions to improve our health.

            Notice I said “we” and “our.”  I am not here to lecture you from a medical pulpit.  I am just as likely to be a patient as you are.  I have suffered injuries, aches, and the consequences of aging like everyone else, so some of this content stems not only from what I teach my patients but what I want to know myself.  I want to know how to feel and move better.

            Also, I am not here to tell you what you should do.  Medical treatment is very personal. Not all treatments work the same for every person, and not every treatment is safe for everyone.  This is normal and expected; we are unique individuals who respond to things in an individual way.  However, to know what we should do, we have to learn what we can do.  Therefore, my goal in sharing this information is to reveal what is possible so we can make decisions aligned with our values, resources, and desires.

            In doing so, you’re going to get my biases; all doctors have them.  I have not read everything on every subject, but I have read a little on most.  This is consistent with my training in family medicine, a specialty that focuses on promoting fundamentals of good health.  Having received additional education in sports medicine and practicing for a decade, I am considered a musculoskeletal medicine expert.  I hope my opinions will be helpful in decreasing your pain and improving your function.

            We are going to explore a wide variety of treatments, including the readily available, the rare, and those decidedly outside the realm of “Western” scientific medicine.  I am sure this blog is not going to cover all options.  Some sections will contain a lot of information because the treatments are common and well-studied.  Others may be a bit leaner because therapies are new, experimental, or poorly researched.  The intent is that you come away with a list of things you want to try that are likely to help.  

I hope reading this feels like a conversation with your doctor, but maybe less like an office visit, where the two of you are in an exam room.  And you are partly naked.  Wearing a gown with that weird triangle print from the early ‘90s.  

No, this kind of conversation should take place around a fire pit on a warm evening, sipping a lemonade.  Where we talk, one on one, about what we really think.  And maybe throw in some sarcasm and obscure movie quotes.  I want to give you my honest assessment of the treatments, how they actually work, and what the evidence says.  I also want to give you some insight into how doctors think and organize information.  By knowing that, you can come to your appointment better prepared to share what matters, armed with the knowledge of what can be done and how you want to proceed.  That way, YOUR goals become the focus of the visit, and it is more productive for you. 

Stoke the fire.  Let’s begin.