CHAPTER 34

FINDING A HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONAL

Sometimes, despite all your good intentions, smart training, and healthy lifestyle, you may need to consult a health-care professional for help with a sports-related injury. When this happens, finding the expert who best matches your particular needs is critical. A variety of doctors, specialists, physical therapists, massage therapists, nutritionists, and others can help successfully treat your injury or improve your health.

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In the most favorable scenario, the healthcare professional whom you choose should be able to personally relate to your training and competition—better yet if he or she is an athlete. These individuals are on your side; they don’t look askew at the endurance sports lifestyle. They understand why you’re so serious about and focused on training. (The only real exception to finding the best health-care practitioner, of course, is if you find yourself in an emergency situation, such as being in a bike accident.) If you find the ideal healthcare professional close to home or work, you’re lucky. Many athletes I worked with at my clinic would fly in from out of town. Some would stay for several days to receive treatment, go over training and diet, and plan for the upcoming race season.

The first thing to do when seeking a healthcare professional is to ask your training partners, those in your running or triathlon club, and even seek local opinions from athletes online. Ask about their success, their experiences, and whether they were treated as a person and not as a condition. In addition, ask how much time the doctor or therapist spent with them during a first visit, and on subsequent visits, and whether the practitioner answered questions and explained what he or she was doing. Also seek out information about philosophical compatibility; you don’t want to work with someone who promotes a high carbohydrate diet and anaerobic training throughout the year if that’s not your desire.

Before making an appointment, don’t be afraid to call their office for information about how this health-care professional practices. This is not unlike a job interview: You want to know about someone before developing a professional relationship. He or she may have a Web site with additional information.

Once you show up for your scheduled appointment, it’s important that you provide a significant amount of information about your fitness and health, especially how and when your injury started. This is obtained through the doctor or therapist taking your history, and usually takes a fair amount of time. Some of this can be obtained from extensive questionnaires, much like those used in this book (many of which I developed and used during my years of practice, and which I sent to athletes before their first visit). Furthermore, a dietary analysis is usually necessary to evaluate your nutritional status. I used to ask athletes to keep a food-intake diary for five to seven days.

Observe how the practitioner addressed your needs and concerns. If you have a good feeling about your visit, plan another as necessary. But if you don’t feel comfortable, whether or not you can fully articulate why, search for another health professional. It may take some time.

The biggest problem for an injured athlete, especially in our current healthcare system, is that usually he or she will end up seeing a specialist. For example, if you visit an acupuncturist, you’ll get acupuncture; visit a surgeon, you may get surgery; visit a dietician, you’ll get diet advice. This may not always be the most holistic approach. What if you have both surgical and nutritional needs for the same problem? It’s uncommon to find a practitioner who can address all your needs, or who will refer you to another specialist, although these health-care professionals do exist and are worth seeking out. This is why you must actively manage the entire process. It’s up to you to find the best health-care practitioners who best match your needs.