You are Not Your Scan

MRI’s CT’s, ultrasound’s and X-rays are medical assessment tools which Physiotherapists, GP’s and other health practitioners use to assist in diagnosing a patient’s pain or complaint. They are useful tools to determine whether more serious treatments such as injections and surgery are warranted.

What is very important to understand is that these scans are pictures of inside the body with a report on anything that isn’t perfect about that picture. This is important is because across all clinics a typical scenario occurs, a patient walks in quite distressed with pain with a bag full of scans. The 1st thing a patient says is “I have had a scan and it says I have this injury”

And that is true, however it may not necessarily be causing your pain. Most patients seek treatment to get out of pain. The truth is, there is a lot of things that occur to the body on the inside and can cause no pain at all.

At the age of 40 you have a:

  • 43% have osteoarthritis and feel no pain
  • 50% change of a disk herniation and feel no pain
  • 70% have disk degeneration and feel no pain
  • 96% had rotator cuff tears or degeneration and feel no pain.

Anything that is used for 40+ years shows signs of use. Your face shows grey hairs, sunspots and wrinkles, the inside of your body is no different!

The problem with this is it can cause a red herring scenario where your scan says you have something horrible however your pain caused by an entirely different structure.

Make no mistake, my 1st and only concern is to get you better, what we need to ensure is that what you are coming in for is what we focus our treatment on.

MRI’s and other scans are amazing tools however they should never replace a thorough assessment performed by a qualified health practitioner.