I have heard an extensive list of reasons why our patients can’t be in as much pain as they say despite their test results…
Besides their shiny hair, things like: you're too young; you have good teeth; you're too thin to have back problems; you're skin looks good; you look so healthy. Yet, these haven’t granted them immunity from illness, and they have not prevented the pain.
What we need to be aware of is that pain can endure long after the illness or injury that caused its initial onset has been treated or healed, until it eventually evolves into its own disease. That is, pain is no longer indicative of another prognosis — it is the prognosis, and a disabling one at that.
Our practitioners who are not only well-versed in chronic pain, but are willing to acknowledge its disabling impacts on our patients. We believe our patients when they say they are hurting. Validation is the first step toward a solution, or at the least, toward offering alternative therapies and treatments that can accommodate a patient and bring them a better quality of life in the absence of pain.