Southwest Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Information Headquarters

• Now let’s talk about pain -The doctors use the common 1-10 pain scale to tell them where your pain is at any given time. My PT’s talk about 3 parts of pain:

1. 1) intensity of pain, is it a 1 or a 10 ----or somewhere in between
2.  2) Frequency of flare-ups, Sometimes , all the time or am I in remission?
3.  3) Duration of flare-ups.  How long do they last? Keep a journal to recite all of these to your Dr or PT.

We are hiring physical therapist immediately! We are the funnest most patient oriented physical therapy clinic in Albuquerque. We have been in business since 2003 and our owner, Kale Isaacson has over 20 years experience as an orthopedic physical therapist. Kale has the borrowed the word "positivity" from a Bob Marley song and included it in our motto- "Positivity in Motion"

I had bilateral knee replacement surgery last year and Kale Isaacson,PT suggested that

In part 3 we studied how inflammation in tissue stimulates pain sensors, and also promotes healing. In Part 4, we will go inside the brain and spinal cord. Whenever I speak to a patient about pain and then mention the brain, the automatic response is, ”So, are you saying the pain is all in my head?” The answer is yes, all pain is produced by the brain: without the brain, there would be no pain. This does NOT mean that the pain is fabricated in your mind and is not real. The most recent research by Lorimer Moseley, PhD, and David Butler,PT from Australia shows that the pain sensors report the injury and inflammation to the spinal cord which feeds it to the brain. The brain then produces the actual physical sensation of pain, even though the pain is felt at the site of the injury.

Explaining Pain is not as easy as it sounds- Everyone's pain is different, but this video explains pain in a very unique way. Check it out to understand more about pain, types of pain and how to treat it. At Southwest Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, we educate our patients about pain while treating not only the the symptoms but also the root cause of the pain.

So after my last Blog on “The Pathology of”, or the “what can go wrong”
of Motor Vehicle Accidents(MVA), I would be shooting myself in the
foot if I did not take the time to explain what it is that we, the
Physical Therapists, do for you, if you are in the unfortunate
predicament of being in a car accident. We as a profession will always
insist that you first see a physician and have the appropriate X-rays,
etc. that are recommended by your doctor. Once you are cleared by
your physician, ask to be referred to Physical Therapy if he/she does
not automatically do so. The sooner the better to keep your tissues
from becoming tight, your joints from becoming stiff, and the pain
from setting in too much. Also, remember that you, as a consumer of
medical services(i.e., the patient), have the right to go where YOU
want to go for your rehab/ PT. Below is a brief explanation of the

Motor vehicle accidents or MVA’s for short, are a very common injury
in our society. However when they occur, most people are unsure where
to go to get medical attention. The other problem is a lot of people do
not have pain or other symptoms immediately after the accident. The
most important thing to be aware of following an MVA, is that
symptoms/ pain can arise and/or worsen at any time following the MVA.

So let’s start today discussing INFLAMMATION after injury. Inflammation is a primitive defense mechanism that is essential for the tissue repair process. It is designed to hurt and it does. This is also a protective mechanism. Inflammation causes swelling. To make it simple, let’s call this swelling “inflammatory soup”.

So you injure your back and go to the doctor for help. You are examined and then some X-rays and maybe an MRI. The doctor then comes back with some type of term, called a diagnosis you might have heard before but don’t know what it specifically means, or some other Latin gobbledygook that you have NO idea about. So in this Blog, I will attempt to explain all of the in’s and out’s of “back injury terminology”. Click here to reference another blog about the Anatomy of the Spine.