Laurie's Blogs.

An interesting concept is springing up in human medicine.  It is that being cognizant of choosing how to describe our diagnoses and being aware of the impact that your words might have.  The concept goes further to say that when you describe things using medical jargon or common phrasing (such as ‘you have a bulging disc’ or ‘a full thickness tear’, etc) it may lead the client toward catastrophizing the problem and can reduce their ability to incorporate or employ self-reliance strategies to their healthcare regime. 

See:   Words that Harm, Words that Heal - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571562f1c2ea51227fbd7afd/t/57bccfd4e58c6235ea00d542/1471991765043/Bedell_2004_Arch_of_Int_Med_Words_that_harm_and_heal.pdf

Words that Harm, Words that Heal is an article aimed at medical doctors to explain that while it is fast and easy to throw out a medical diagnosis in a busy clinical setting, that physicians may need to take more time to truly explain a condition and reassure their patient.

Here is a quote from the paper, "...language that heals simply explains what is happening rather than cloaking a diagnosis in a frightening term" (Beddell et al)

A physiotherapist whose newsletter I subscribe to, (APTEI.ca) proposed some possible alternate terms that we could be using in physical therapy practice:

Medical Jargon to Avoid---->Possible Replacement Terms

Arthritis -----------------------------> Joint irritation

Disc protrusions ------------------>Tissue inflammation

Degenerative disc disease -----> Tissue irritation

Scoliosis -----------------------------> Muscle imbalance

Subluxations ------------------------> Joint stiffness

Clinical instability -------------------> Muscle weakness

Trapped / pinched nerve ----------> Irritated / sensitive nerve

SI upslip --------------------------------> Back stiffness

Rotated innominate ------------------> Muscle tightness

Rib gone out ----------------------------> Sprained joint

I think such things are true in Veterinary Medicine as well.  The examples above would work for our canine patients / owner.  One that I have been using for years was shoulder hypermobility for medial shoulder instability.  Yah, I usually have to explain the term hypermobility, which I say is just a bit of extra movement, mobility… but it is far less daunting than saying medial shoulder instability or even medial shoulder compartment syndrome.

Anyways, maybe read the whole paper, see what you think, and test it out!  I think it’s important for those of us in rehab in particular to be able to ‘sell’ the ‘fixability’ of a dog’s condition to the owner instead of scaring them into thinking that their dog is doomed for a short life, a life of pain, or ‘surgery no matter what’.  

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Until next time… Cheers!

Laurie