You are NOT your diagnosis
If you’ve been to a doctor or physical therapist for treatment you’ve likely been given a diagnosis related to your pain such as shoulder impingement, patellofemoral pain syndrome, bursitis, herniated disc, ankle instability, arthritis, etc.
While this information can be useful to gain an understanding of what is going on locally in the area of concern, it can lead to more confusion and doesn't provide the full picture of why this occurred and how it is impacting you specifically. Often we even find that diagnoses determined through imaging don’t correlate with pain and similar findings can be seen in asymptomatic individuals
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What does this mean for you? Your diagnosis alone isn’t a sufficient explanation for your pain and what the subsequent treatment will be. Going through a full assessment that looks at the range of motion, strength, movement strategies, exercise tolerance, etc. will be important factors when deciding the best plan of care for you and will help you to better understand what is influencing your symptoms.
Two individuals may have the same diagnosis but for two very different reasons. Let's use an example of patellofemoral pain syndrome which is a fancy way of saying pain in the front of the knee usually below the knee cap.
A 50-year-old marathon runner and a 25-year-old baseball player can both have this diagnosis but have different findings on their assessment aside from the actual area of pain. They may differ in joint range of motion, strength levels, and strategies they use to perform certain movements. They also aren’t returning to the same activities and their respective sports require different movement demands.
This would lead to a different explanation of why they are experiencing knee pain and differences in approach to addressing their pain. The diagnosis tells us a little about what is happening, but the rest of the assessment and the demands of each individual determines the plan.
If you are struggling to understand your diagnosis or why you may be experiencing pain schedule a discovery call with one of our physical therapists!!