Help, my pain’s too severe to get into the clinic! 

You may be in too much pain to get to the clinic but we are still here to help.  

Should I attempt to get to the clinic? 

It is in general much easier to give treatment in the clinic where we have the proper treatment couch, however, there are times when this just doesn’t make sense.  In general terms if you are in too much pain to even walk down stairs or get in and out of the car, then you are probably not safe to drive with back pain, and even taking the car journey to the clinic as a passenger could be too painful or counter-productive, so it is probably best you stay at home to rest and wait until the initial acute muscle spasm and pain has subsided before coming to the clinic. 

Remote phone consultation 

This is the first requirement. We will take a full history of your complaint, your medical background and do the best we can to understand your complaint over the phone. We can schedule this to be a longer phone call so we can build as full a picture as possible. 

Attending hospital with back pain – stop and think 

Please don’t just rush to the hospital emergency. Often this is not required in the first instance and many times clients report going to accident and emergency only to wait for several hours before being sent home with painkillers and told to rest.  You may not even get an X-ray or MRI scan if this is not indicated.  We aim to reduce the pressure on the NHS, so will not advise going to hospital if there is no indication. 

Sometimes however, albeit rare, it is necessary for you to see your doctor or go to hospital and we will certainly advise this if required or indicated. 

Please stop and think! Don’t rush to A&E, give us a 📞 call first. Please also read more about back pain red flags to understand when it is necessary to seek medical attention. 

Rest, advice, home help and self-treatment 

This may be required initially, and sometimes this is the best course of action. 

If there are any home treatments, exercise or stretches you can do to help to reduce the acute nature of the condition we can advise this, or advise whether any analgesic painkillers or anti-inflammatory medication may be of benefit, along with Ice or Heat treatment. Commonly the pain subsides in a short space of time, and then it is possible to schedule a visit to the clinic.  

Home Visits 

Sometimes, if you can’t travel or are in continuing severe pain then a Chiropractic home-visit may be required, and we can arrange this if it is essential. 

We can use a portable Chiropractic treatment couch if necessary to enable us to treat as best we can. 

Benefits of home visits 

  • We can do a better physical exam to enable a fuller diagnosis. 
  • Sometimes some deep massage or trigger point treatment, gentle joint mobilization or stretching can help to begin to allow the muscles to relax and ease, helping you back to mobility. 

Difficulties of Home Visits 

  • Often when an injury is very acute, joint manipulation may not be indicated immediately; rather, treatments aimed at reducing the pain, inflammation and muscle spasm may be required before joint mobilization is even possible, so the treatment may not be of much benefit before you have carried out some self-treatment and rest at home. 
  • The availability of the Chiropractor and the distance and time to travel may be an issue. 
  • Cost. We may need to charge for the extra time to attend a home-visit.  We do not want to overcharge but this does need to be considered. 

Home-visit because you are too busy or unable to travel to the clinic 

On occasions, you may be simply too busy to get to the clinic, and need to fit the treatment in around your own schedule or preferred location, so we may still be able to visit.  Please understand that in this scenario when the call-out is not essential but just preferable we will need to charge full travel rates for the time and possibly out of hours service, so there may be additional costs, but we will consider this if possible. 

 

Finally please do 📞 call! 

Please do ring if you feel you may need a call-out. We want to help you the best we can.