Chest Pain: Is It A Heart Attack or A Twisted Rib?

The Choice You Make May Save Your Life

By Dr. Rick Morris

You wake up Sunday morning, turn in bed and feel a sharp, stabbing pain in your chest. You’re concerned, but not panicked…things come and go. You’re used to it. But, then you turn over and it grabs you again. You take a deep breath and it feels as though a knife is running through your chest. It may even be shooting to your back or shoulder.

Television reports race through your mind, “Many people deny the signs of a heart attack during the critical first few minutes and, because of that, half of them die.” What should you do? You don’t want to overreact, yet this is your life and there’s no room for error.

Do You Know The First Signs Of A Heart Attack?

• Deep pressure in your chest that may radiate to your left shoulder, jaw or arm.
• Feeling “winded” or out of breath.
• Sweating with an increase of chest pain during activities, such as going up stairs or walking quickly.
• An irregular pulse (we’ll teach you to check it…see this month’s patient gift).
• A change in your skin coloring.

These symptoms warrant a medical examination—Quickly. Take an aspirin immediately (not if you are aspirin sensitive or have asthma) and get to the E.R..

What Are The Signs of A Subluxated or “Twisted” Rib?

• Sharp pain to your chest or back.
• Pain that can be recreated by touching the painful area, turning or twisting your torso, bending your neck forward or taking a deep breath.
• A regular pulse (although it may be a little fast due to fear).

Now Back To Our Guy In Bed…

Your pain is sharp and it’s not a feeling of “heavy pressure.” It “zaps” you when you try to turn in bed - even taking a deep breath hurts. Further, your coloring hasn’t changed and walking up and down the stairs doesn’t aggravate your symptoms. You can reproduce the pain by touching your rib cage. Your pulse is regular and it’s not missing any beats.

You realize that it’s a subluxated rib, call our office and save yourself the expense and aggravation of spending your day in the emergency room. You avoided the prescriptions of Valium, muscle relaxants and pain medication as well as the hundreds or thousands of dollars in tests and your pain was completely eliminated without being “doped up.”

So, What’s A Subluxated Rib and What Causes It?

Think of the last time you ordered barbequed ribs. Do you remember the meat that’s between the bones? Well, that’s not only muscle but nerves.

Can you imagine what it feels like if your ribs are just slightly twisted (i.e. subluxated) and rub against the nerve every time you twist, move or take a deep breath? Can you imagine the sharp, stabbing pain and spasms? Well if you’ve had a subluxated rib, you know just what I’m talking about.

Now you understand why thousands of people every year are needlessly rushed to the emergency room. They are usually treated improperly with medication while their misaligned ribs are ignored! A couple of adjustments would fix the problem and prevent a chronic one from developing. Why didn’t the emergency room just tell them to go to their chiropractor? Well, sometimes they do, but not usually. In ten years things may be different, but today it’s up to you.

That’s The Purpose Of This Newsletter

I want my patients to know the difference between a heart attack and a subluxated rib.

Just as you shouldn’t bring a heart attack to our office, you shouldn’t bring a subluxated rib to a hospital. They are not trained to fix it and will only send you along an expensive and unnecessary path.

Chest pain associated with coughing, sputum, indigestion, burning or wheezing are obviously not musculoskeletal and need the services of a medical physician. But discuss the condition with us, as we often have natural suggestions that may lessen your need for medication.

This month’s gift to our patients… a free rib examination for you and your family with a blood pressure check and a personal class on evaluating your own pulse. Heart attacks are the number one cause of death; we want our patients to spot them immediately. Rib subluxations are even more common, and we don’t want you to be mistreated.

By the way….Thank you for your letters last month. We loved them!

I know it took time from your schedules that are already overwhelming…so I repeat how much I appreciate them.

As I promised, our outside panel evaluated all the letters and picked their favorites. I’ve included the winners with this health report. Thank you. Thank you. Whether you wrote a letter, referred those that you care about or just made it fun for us to come to work…Thank you.

Like some of Dr. Morris’ other patients, I too was referred to him by a friend. My friend told me to go see this guy because “…he is a good doctor, he can help you and he is a nice guy.” Well, that cinched it for me. I promptly threw away his number figuring that he was a chiropractor so how good a doctor can he be, I don’t really need help and I am sick of that phoney LA “nice”. I wasn’t aware how persistent my friend can be!

Finally, my friend got tired of telling me to go see Dr. Morris and nothing happening so he told me to make an appointment with Dr. Morris and that he (my friend) would show up to make sure that I went. So, I did and that is how I ended up at Dr. Morris’s office.Ironically, I initially went to see Dr. Morris to get my friend off my back. I continued to go see Dr. Morris because he impressed me so much and because he made my back, neck and shoulders feel better.

My problem was my shoulders. There were certain times when I would be lifting weights in the gym when my shoulders would just give out. I could feel them going and there was nothing that I could do about it. Dr. Morris took some X-ray, isolated the problem and taught me how to correctly track my shoulders to keep them from “falling” out of place.

If we are lucky, there are maybe 1 or 2 times in our lives where people enter our lives and really make a difference in our lives. Dr. Morris is one of those people to me. I was going through a very difficult period in my life at this time. I had just been diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma—a tumor on my pituitary gland. You go through life thinking everything is great and all of a sudden you are faced with your own mortality. It is like hitting a brick wall. I really felt lost for awhile. Dr. Morris provided a great listening ear and gave me some invaluable advice in terms of assessing my diagnosis and understanding all the options that I had in deciding what type of treatment to pursue. He helped me to understand that I had been given an opportunity to change some things in my life instead of being handed a death sentence which is where my head was at initially. Today my prognosis is good—the tumor is benign and its growth is being controlled through medication.

If you want a doctor who is competent, caring and is passionate about what he does, then Dr. Morris is the doctor for you. I cannot recommend him highly enough. His staff is professional, courteous and fun to be around. They make my visits memorable.

Thank you Dr. Morris for showing me that there are doctors out there who care—doctors who are more interested in their patients than in processing those insurance forms. I can never repay you for everything that you have done for me but I am very grateful to you and want to thank you!!

Sincerely,

David Henricks

This letter is to all those who are suffering from chronic pain, back, neck or otherwise. I wanted to take a few moments to rave about the care I received at Dr. Morris’ office.

I came to this office like all patients do, by referral. After a year and a half of constant pain from headaches and dozens of tests, cortisone shots in my neck every two weeks and lots of heavy medication, I resolved myself to not having a life outside of my bed. Then the stars aligned and I ran into a friend of my family’s who asked how I was doing. I explained everything I was going through and all the pain and she said, “You have to go see my chiropractor, he is good. If he can’t figure out how to help you he will at least have some alternatives.” I figured why not, if he couldn’t help me he’d try to find someone who could, it’s a win-win situation.

At my first appointment he linked my headaches to my neck. After a month of three weekly appointments, I could feel the difference. I was slowly starting to get my life back, all the while being treated like I was the only patient he had. The quality of care is phenomenal, not just from Dr. Morris, from all of the staff.

When most people think of the doctor’s office, they are filled with dread. They think of long waits only to see the doctor for 5 minutes and then be told “take these pills and you SHOULD feel better” or “I really don’t see anything wrong, exercise more and you’ll feel better.” This couldn’t be further from the truth with Dr. Morris’ office. If you have questions or concerns he makes sure to answer them thoroughly and more important, UNDERSTANDABLY. I think he really understands his patient’s pain, something I believe most doctors seriously lack. I have met a lot of doctors in my short life and none of them even compare to the kind, caring, understanding, empathetic, gently, smart, wonderful; Dr. Rick Morris.

Thank You! Dr. Morris and EVERYONE in the office for everything you have done to help me. I am in debt to you all forever!

Sandra Stephens

Dear Drs. Rick & April:

What a difference a skilled, compassionate, kind, sensitive chiropractor makes! I owe my ability to get up in the morning and stand up straight and walk without pain to the two of you. (Dr. Morris started and has maintained the treatment and since Dr. Hopson came on board in his office, she has assisted and also treated me.)

About a year ago, I was referred by a friend/neighbor to the office of Dr. Rick Morris. My friend had had pain in her back and hip for some time and had been referred to Dr. Morris by her yoga instructor. When we were chatting one day, I mentioned my back and knee pain. She said she had just the person to treat me, that he had successfully treated her. (I have since referred my husband to the practice as well.)

I followed through and made an appointment with Dr. Morris who spent about and hour and a half evaluating every part of my back, neck, feet, joints and reflexes. He then explained in detail, but in layman’s terms, what parts needed strengthening, adjustment, stretching, etc., in order to restore their flexibility and in turn reduce or eliminate the pain I was experiencing. Treatment has consisted of the support staff first using heat and massage therapy to relax the affected area(s) after which muscle and structure manipulation and adjustment are carefully and skillfully administered by either Dr. Morris or Dr. Hopson. In addition, I have also been instructed how to assist with my own recovery by executing exercises prescribed precisely to help my peculiar skeletal/muscular weaknesses or injuries.

During the course of my treatment it has been clearly evident that Dr. Morris and Dr. Hopson are in tune to my feedback just preceding and during the actual treatments. Thorough reevaluations have been done on a regular basis to monitor progress and adjust prescribed exercises and treatment during the healing process.

My experience in the chiropractic care of Dr. Morris and Dr. Hopson is that they are highly dedicated to maintaining their patient’s well being, even at their own personal sacrifice. Relieving a patient in pain is paramount. For example, when my husband’s back suddenly went in to spasm at the end of the day, the doctors adjusted personal plans in order to treat him and provided some relief from his pain. I have been treated as a unique individual with treatment specific to my body and with the goal of strengthening my skeletal structure and muscles, always with ‘tender loving care’.

In my opinion Dr. Morris and Dr. Hopson should be considered models of how to provide skilled effective, compassionate chiropractic treatment.

Thank you for always ‘being there’ for me, my skeleton and my muscles. Thank you for helping to make my body free and move soooo much better.

Very truly yours,

Wendie Olshan

THE MORRIS SPINAL STENOSIS & DISC CENTER

Rick H. Morris, D.C., C.C.S.P., Q.M.E., A.B.A.A.H.P.
Brendan Murray, D.C., D.A.C.B.S.P., Q.M.E.
April Hopson, D.C. April Hopson, D.C.

1243 7th Street, Suite B, Santa Monica, California 90401
tel: 310-451-5851 | fax:310-458-0051
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