The Bridging the Gap Method

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00:00

This is the bridging the gap physical therapy podcast, keeping you active and pain free.

Charlie McDermott 00:06

Welcome! This is Charlie McDermott, publisher of Palm Living Magazine and today I am with Dr. David Lee and Dr. Bri Wyatt from Bridging the Gap physical therapy. Doctors how’re you doing?

Dr. David Lee 00:17

Doing well, thanks for having us on.

Dr. Bri Wyatt 00:19

Happy to be back!

Charlie McDermott 00:20

I am glad I lassoed you want because one, I owe you a big thank you and I want to talk about this topic today. For our listeners, my wife, Barb has been a frequent visitor and frequent only two sessions. I think she’s actually due for a session in about another hour today and you know this is probably in correct me if I’m wrong docs but this is probably something that many of your patients go through prior to walking through your doors for the first time and that’s, wow, something hurts and I don’t know what to do, do you find it that’s normal for many patients that walk in who haven’t met you for the first time?

Dr. Bri Wyatt 01:03

Yeah, as much as we love technology, a lot of times it can make it a little bit more difficult for people, they go to the internet first and they’re googling a ton of things and asking Dr. Google what do I need to do and sometimes it’s not the right information on it’s not specific information for them and then they go through this process where they’re not getting better and then they’re trying to figure out who else should they see? Should they go the doctor? Should they get imaging? And a lot of people have been through all of these different areas trying to get help when they could come right in and get an individualized approach to what their problem is and get all of those answers right there in one session. So a lot of the people that come to us, they’ve been going down these different roads, trying to figure out what exactly is going on with them because it’s scary when something hurts and you can’t figure out what is the real problem and so that’s what we really try to focus on here is trying to figure out what is the real problem instead of just looking at the symptoms?

Charlie McDermott 02:07

And that’s certainly you know you bring up a good point there, Dr. Wyatt you know the peace of mind that we now have because two weeks ago, before Barb spent time with Dr. Lee, we had these nightmare visions of what I went through five, six years ago, that was a complete just rotator cuff surgery and getting back to normal was a one to two year process and I’m thinking holy cow, it’s one thing when you go through that, but one someone you love, maybe heading towards you’re gone, geez, what can we do? And I know that those were the same questions that you shared, where do you even begin in Pennsylvania to see a physical therapist you have to jump through all these hoops go to your physician get a script and all that and I know it’s different in Florida. I mean, like you said, you can walk in but we had all the choices of everything from Dr. Google and trying to diet self diagnosed, right and every day it was she was in more and more pain. Fortunately, she found you guys and I’ll get into a little bit of what I just shared with Dr. Lee. I call him The Miracle Worker because we were completely astonished after the first session, but this is your interview, not mine. So, I’m going to step off the soapbox here.

Dr. David Lee 03:24

I mean, you bring up a great point because there are several people that go through this process, almost everybody hurts in some body parts some way the thing is, it becomes very emotional when you can’t do the things that you want to do. So I know your wife is a very active individual. So when you can’t do the mundane stuff, like taking off a shirt or housework it gets to your head a little bit and what happens is that you go into see a doctor and they give you X-rays or imaging or MRIs or whatever and they say that something is torn, they say that something is broken, they say that something is not working well and a lot of times what happens is that MRI report will say all these different things that are happening and it can be very overwhelming. So what happens is that a lot of people bring me these MRI reports and they’re like, yeah, this is the problem of my shoulder, I have this torn tendon, I have this bursitis that’s inflamed.

I have these herniated disc and what we do here is we look at that kind of stuff, but we also see what the real issue is because what happens is that yes, you can have all those things and those are parts of natural degeneration on the body as well and they’ve done a lot of MRI studies of people in their 20s 30s 40s 50s and 60s and what happens is that even in your 20s, you start to degenerate some, so you start to have a little bit of herniation’s in your disc, when you get to your 30s, it’s even more when you get to your 40s, it’s even more, but a lot of times they are asymptomatic. So you go into doctors saying that you have low back pain and they take an MRI and what happens is that, you have a herniated disc there, that has to be the reason why you have low back pain. But a lot of times it’s not, it’s because of, we call it trigger points in the muscle, it’s because maybe the alignment isn’t right, because you have stiff joints because you don’t have, you have maybe like a nerve that’s in pain just because you have not enough strength in the area. So, diagnosis is key. So what we do is we look at the whole picture because we can’t let that bias us, we have to do our own test, we have to see you move, we have to feel everything we’re like a detective, in some words, is we’re taking all this information and we’re basically calculating it down and then we’re giving you a diagnosis based on what we see and if that’s kind of matching what you tell us, then we know we’re on the right track and then we do our treatment and based on the treatment, if you get better from there, then we’re on the right track and if we’re not, then we’ll spend time and do some other stuff that you might think it is and go from there. So it’s an awesome situation here because we actually have the time to do that because a lot of times if you only spending 15 minutes with the patient, it’s very hard to diagnose, let alone try to treat somebody and do an effective treatment. So, you can actually rule in and rule out what exactly is going on.

Charlie McDermott 06:52

Yeah and that was the other big aha, that Barb shared with me that not only did you spend the time, we were both division one college athletes. Certainly, that was a long time ago, but we’ve had our share of injuries and rehab and what she shared with me was, oh, my goodness, this was nothing like physical therapy way back in the day or for that matter not too long ago with what I went through with my shoulder, you really do some pretty unique things, at least unique to us. So she came home that they range of motion was significantly better pain down, it seems like you guys do some pretty unique things for your patients.

Dr. David Lee 07:32

I think it’s all in the details, a lot of times people don’t go through the details and they just kind of get stuck in the, this kind of, daily motion. So, what happens is that there’s 600 muscles in the body. So, if you want to look at three of them, you’re limiting yourself to lie things, right? So you can have pain in the front of your shoulder and it can be coming from six or seven different things. So if you’re not addressing all those things, if you leave one out on the table or say that your treatments not effective, say that you just kind of are just touching the person and not really effectively getting down to the points of pain where it’s actually going to give you relief. Well, I mean, the thing is, you really didn’t do what you’re supposed to do to actually help somebody out. So that’s I think that’s the biggest thing is kind of like the Patriots, why did they win so many championships? Not because the cheating because they go through every scenario they go through every little detail and you know, they don’t have the greatest talent in the world. But you know, they make sure that they go through the details and that’s what we try to focus on here is just going through the details, going through the little things if this doesn’t work, we’re gonna go through this, this doesn’t work we’re gonna go through this, we’re gonna eventually get it the thing is, there’s a lot of different scenarios that can play out but we’re gonna make sure that we have, we want to make sure that you get back on the right track

Charlie McDermott 09:04

And how great is that versus going from I have a pain to well you need the unfortunate surgery and game which is certainly doesn’t do anyone any favors. Certainly surgeries are important and required at certain times but I think you guys have the perfect name, the bridging the gap, there is a gap there is a void and I guess that’s part two of that right? If you have a pain today don’t let it go for months and months or years, take care of it now, right?

Dr. Bri Wyatt 09:33

Yeah, definitely, if you’re starting to feel that something’s not quite right, our bodies are amazing at compensating, especially athletes, I find athletes are just amazing compensators and something’s not right, but their body will figure out a way to get it done. So if something’s bothering you now come on in. Let us actually take a look at everything possible and that’s the number one thing that I love about working here in this job is I have so much time where I can spend a great amount ton of detail and in time looking at their bodies, looking at how they move, even just talking and getting to know them. So our patients actually feel like they’re being heard, which is really something that a lot of people go through, they’ve been to a ton of other physicians and health care providers and they don’t feel like they’re being heard and they come in here and we actually take the time and hear everything that they want to tell us and so that they actually feel like their voice is being heard and we’re really touching on what exactly they’re here for. They don’t feel like we’re just beating around the bush, we’re taking our time and really getting to know them as people and what specifically they want. Sometimes sessions get a little emotional because so many people are like, oh, my gosh, I’ve been waiting forever and nobody has ever really figured out what’s going on and nobody’s explained it to me and now I understand it and sometimes we have patients who will actually get emotional and it’s a really rewarding career.

Charlie McDermott 11:00

Yeah, that’s a good point, I guess, you tend to carry that. People don’t want to be complainers and you just carry that pain for years and years and finally, you feel like you found a solution and answer like you said, someone who listens that’s for be able to get all that out of your system is is a wonderful thing. Guys, again, I thank you. I know we have listeners who are also patients or have had been through the doors and you’ve helped and I want to encourage anyone out there thinking about taking care of a nagging injury, don’t hesitate give Dr. Lee and Dr. Wyatt a quick call and get on over there.

Dr. David Lee 11:39

Yes. And, you know, we will make sure that we diagnose the issue, we’ll make sure that, you know, the thing is we will omit if we can’t treat something, okay, if it’s something because there are things that require surgery, right? We all have doctorate degrees. So we’re known as doctors in the clinic, we have the education to actually decipher if something is treatable or not treatable, that’s where our education goes towards. So that you can be confident, if I’m confident that I can’t treat something, I’m going to be like, okay, I don’t want to see anymore because I can’t treat you right now. It might be something else going on something deeper. Let’s go ahead and get some imaging get something else done because what we’re doing is not working at this point. So if I feel like we’re not progressing, we’re going to send you somewhere else because that’s our main concern here is for you to get better, for you to resume your daily activities and do the things that you love to do.

Charlie McDermott 12:39

Well, super, really, again, appreciate your time and everything you’re doing for the community and look forward to the next episode.

Dr. David Lee 12:46

Great talking to you, Charlie!

Dr. Bri Wyatt 12:47

Thanks, Charlie!