"StandUpRight News" by Dr. Donaldson

Affordable Care That Fits Your Budget

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: Next to "Will it work?" it seems like the biggest concern of people starting care at our office is "What will it cost and how can I afford it"? That is not surprising given the turmoil in the world of finance and the rising costs / lowering benefits from health insurance.

At Donaldson Neck and Back Pain Center, we are committed to not add to the uncertainty. We don't want to contribute to you having more financial problems than you have health problems. That is one reason why we have recently upgraded our financial procedures to the most patient-friendly we can legally offer.

Not only is our treatment effective and affordable but our unique financial policies allow you to have the benefits of any applicable insurance coverage and to budget your personal responsibility if needed with no interest.

At the heart of this is our Zero Balance Clinic policy. This means that each visit is either paid for in full on the day of service or that you have agreed to specific arrangements to pay any unpaid balance after your insurance processes your claim. This keeps our billing costs down and keeps you in control of your care and your finances.

We will bill your insurance for you. We are contracted with most insurance companies that do business in our area, so that even though you may have a high deductible, you will receive any benefits you are due.

We use a level 3 security payment processing company which means you can feel comfortable that your financial information will never be leaked from our office. This also gives us the ability to let you budget your payments over a time period that works for you with our Card-on-File program. Ask Julie how that works to save you time, hassle and money.

Health care has to work for you on all levels, it has to fit your schedule, fit your lifestyle, and above all your wallet. If you are not happy with any of these then you won't be happy with our office.

We want you to be happy with our care so we have financial policies that can make it work for you.

If you or someone you know has lower back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, call us at (414) 355-0433 to schedule a Complimentary Consultation with Dr. Donaldson to find out if you qualify for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Disc Decompression programs or request an appointment online.

Is It Better To Rest Or To Exercise For Herniated Disc Pain?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: We hear this question a lot? Especially when people first come in. Some think that they are having a problem because they didn't exercise enough and want to start working-out right away. Some think they have been over-exercising and want to just stop all activity and lie around for a couple weeks.

When you start to feel better you become dangerous to yourself. You feel like getting back to doing the things that got you here in the first place.

The key is to avoid the extremes of both. Not too much, not too little. After fifteen minutes of immobility the tissue starts to stiffen up and you are more likely to re-injure yourself. After fifteen minutes of activity muscles may begin to fatigue and lose the ability to respond the the nerve trigger as rapidly as necessary and you may re-injure yourself by overloading the ligaments.

If you are wanting to rest, alternate between positions every fifteen minutes or so. Stand for a while, sit for a while, as you tolerate.  It is best to not remain doing any single activity or posture for long periods especially when you are really sore.

The things that will stress your spine the most are poor sitting posture and long periods of sitting, and the BLT. No, not the sandwich, but Bending Lifting and Twisting and especially combinations of those.

Just remember too little activity is just as damaging as too much.

If you or someone you know has lower back pain, sciatica or a herniated disc, call us at (414) 355-0433 to schedule a Complimentary Consultation with Dr. Donaldson to find out if you qualify for one of our StandUpRight Spinal Disc Decompression programs or request an appointment online.

Will Your Back Pain Be Healed by Taking Anti-Inflammatories?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: So your back starts to hurt. First thing you might do is take some ibuprofen or aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drug. The television commercials make it seem like the thing to do. But these drugs are not without well-documented risks. Is it really the right thing to do? Well, it depends on what you are trying to do and why?

If you are just trying to not deal with the pain, then it might do the trick. It might get rid of the pain. Good for now. And maybe good for a while. But then the pain comes back, so you do it again. And again. And again. Pretty soon you realize that it's not working this time.

Will Non-Surgical Disc Decompression Help Heal My Disc Herniation?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: Sometimes back pain seems like it goes on forever. It can be pretty scary wondering about your future. "What if I continue to get worse? What if my sciatic leg pain never goes away? Will I ever be able to get back to a normal life again?"

Some things never can get better. A piece of steak never turns back into a cow's leg. Humpty-Dumpty couldn't be put back together again. Done is done.

But the good thing about living things is they have the capacity to heal. Healing means repair and replacement of diseased, broken or failing tissue. Living things heal, dead things don't. So even the disc can heal. Slowly. And under the right conditions. But the tissue does have living cells that are able to repair and replace damaged tissue.

Spinal X-rays – The Missed Opportunity?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes: 

 "I had x-rays and MRIs and they say nothing is wrong except arthritis."

 "My doctor says my insurance company tells him I don't need x-rays of my back and that I should just take these drugs and my back pain would go away. Well, it didn’t. My back keeps hurting and all they do is keep giving me drugs. What’s wrong?"

 Both of these stories point out the missed opportunity of spinal x-rays.

 Sometimes people come to us with page after page of x-ray, CT and MRI reports and still have never had a good explanation of why they have not gotten any better. On the other hand we see people come to us with long-standing back pain that they can't get rid of and who have never been x-rayed. Some insurance companies refuse to pay for x-rays in the first thirty days, yet Medicare thinks the x-ray is important.

So what is the proper use of x-rays for back pain?  

Will Walking Help My Herniated Disc?

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

Walking is not always the best exercise.

If you can't do any other exercise you can always walk, right? It's symmetrical, it's low impact, it can increase your aerobic capacity and burn calories, plus you get to enjoy being outside in the air and sunshine.

But there are people for whom walking might not be the best. It might actually do more harm than good, especially if you have a herniated disc in your back.

Help Your Child Avoid a Herniated Disc

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

Children don't need any more problems than they already have. And the last thing a child needs is a herniated disc problem. It can ruin some of the best years of a person's life. It is known that the risk of having back pain as an adult increases when a person experiences lower back pain as a child.

Years ago when computers first came into daily use we thought that by today we'd live in a "paperless society." But now when children have computers at school, computers at home, even computers in their hands, you'd think that text books would be obsolete and all they'd have to carry back and forth to school would be their lunch. That's waaaaay not true. Every year it seems like the backpacks get heavier instead of lighter.

For When Simple Pain Relief Measures Are Not Enough

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Herniated Disc Doctor writes:

Sometimes all it takes to get you feeling better and back to your normal activities is a week or two or three of spinal adjustments and some pain control therapies. If this is the case then we’ll discharge you when you have recovered to as good as you need to be and the doctor is confident that you will not end up right back here in pain a couple of weeks after stopping treatment.

But sometimes your spine is more messed up than you thought it was. Sometimes the pain stays longer that you’d like it to. Or sometimes your pain just keeps coming back… and back … and back.

Healing After a Herniated Disc Takes More Than Just a Core Exercise Program

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Sciatica Doctor writes:

Finally. A day without leg pain!

So you've overcome that nasty sciatica. No more shooting pain into your leg whenever you hit a bump while driving your car. No more having to drag yourself home after work and lie on the floor all night just to find a bit of relief. Maybe you can even stop the medication that knocks you out and constipates you for days on end.

The worst thing in the world would be for the pain to come back once you have had some relief. Sure, you are happy that you feel better. That's a good first step. But getting the pain reduced is only one step toward solving the problem that caused the pain in the first place. So let the healing begin.

Whether the direct cause of your sciatic nerve pain is a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, facet syndrome or piriformis syndrome, as the nerve pain begins to lessen you need to be paying close attention to your lifestyle so you can change the habits that got you into such a condition.

Mind Over Disc

Milwaukee Board Certified Chiropractic Orthopedist and Sciatic Pain Doctor writes:

 

The other day while my daughter was at work, I changed the burned out headlight in her car. I left the dead bulb on the passenger seat just like the real car mechanics do. When she got into the car after work she was able to see that there was a dead bulb there. The new bulb worked. The old one didn't.

Seeing the dead bulb lying on her seat did not affect the performance of the new bulb. The new one shined just as bright as if she had not seen the dead one lying there. 

Apparently people aren't like lightbulbs.