Do you know what your target is?
Do you know why you are going to that target?
Do you know where you are going with that long needle and how you’re going to get there?
Learning the skills to practice natural regenerative medicine is a major commitment in energy, time, and money as so it is right to think a long time about what you are going to do with this skill.
Two questions you should ask yourself are:
- Are you also going to have to learn a lot of ultrasound?
- Will certification make a difference?
Where you are going to spend money and time learning the art and science of prolotherapy are major considerations. In medicine, learning a new skill that carries significant risks adds to the importance of your commitment.
If you listen to the regenerative medicine pundits, it is all about what you inject that is most important. There is a lot of talk about “what” we inject, but little talk about all the other substances that are possible to inject, from blood to testosterone.
The major organizations that teach regenerative medicine spend almost no time discussing why to inject. There is only a limited attempt to create a differential diagnosis that includes more than tendinosis. This leaves out some very important issues, like:
- Ligament laxity,
- Joint dysfunctions,
- Scars,
- Fascial distortions,
- Nutritional and hormonal abnormalities.
Note that only one of these (ligament laxity) will respond to natural regenerative injection techniques. But the other issues can and do affect ligament laxity treatments. If you think that ”If it hurts, it must be regenerative medicine-deficient” is only sometimes true. This school of thought says that if it hurts, inject it without doing the necessary physical exam and diagnosis.
The where to inject is an even more neglected subject by these groups. If the pain is near a joint, the “where” is in the joint. Joints are easy to find on fluoroscopy and ultrasound, so these are the essential “where–finding” tools for the ”inject-if-it-hurts” doctors…not their fingers or non-tool-based diagnoses.
If you know the “why,” “where,” and “what” it is you want to inject, then how to inject is the critical piece that unites these skill sets. The “how-to-get-the-needle-to-go-where-you-want” is what makes for a great regenerative doctor.
Prolotherapy: Getting to the Point is about is about teaching these complex skills in an efficient, programmatic, comprehensive way. It blends what I’ve learned from successfully treating thousands of patients, and teaching professionals for over 25 years to into the pathways that lead from novice to expert.
How is it possible to leave the workshops and return to your office and start doing safe regenerative medicine or prolotherapy?
There is no other way to gain competence in the complex skills of prolotherapy, and there are no shortcuts, no perfect weekend courses…only learning the essential skills and techniques and practice.
Over the years of teaching natural regenerative medicine, I have watched the subject of natural regenerative medicine expand. The amount of didactic or mental knowledge has expanded so much that it is hard to teach just two or three joints during a weekend. In addition, the physical or technical competencies necessary to treat just two or three joints have also expanded to the point that it is impossible to teach them in a one-day cadaver laboratory. Instead, I’ve developed this course to address both the mental skills and physical competencies that will enable students to become great practicing prolotherapists.
The mental skills, which are:
- Knowing the anatomy
- Understanding the history, and
- Interpreting the pain diagram
can be learned in Prolotherapy: Getting to the Point. This online course distills my many years of practicing and teaching into the elements you need to set your prolotherapy foundation. There is no need to spend thousands of dollars to hear, show or tell you this information. You can view, hear, and read it at home for a lot less money and brain damage. Part of this is learning to do online education courses. The keys to making web-based learning work are organizing a consistent time and place to do it for those of us who have grown up without an iPhone.
There are also the physical competencies—learning the motor movements and coordination necessary to treat the patient. These are:
- Physical examination
- Landmark identification
- Needle handling
- Hitting the target
Learning these fundamentals is accomplished through an interaction that includes demonstrations, and then physically practicing the activities until they become second nature.
Prolotherapy: Getting to the Point cadaver labs offer more than 8 hours of practice with ‘needles in your hands’ with the most experienced cadaver lab teachers in the world at your side. Ultrasound and fluoroscopy are used to confirm your palpatory findings and accuracy of the needle on the target.
The place to practice these injection skills and techniques is in the cadaver lab–NOT in Mexico or Honduras, where clinical evaluation and treatment integration should be the goals of your experience.
If you know the fundamentals, getting blood in your syringe will be a rare event.
We will discuss the issue of certification in the next blog.
