You are in pain or not feeling well. You see a doctor and he/she tells you that the MRI or lab tests came back and did not show anything out of the ordinary.
There is nothing wrong with you is what you are told. Yet you are still in pain or not feeling well.
Lab tests, imaging such as X-rays, MRIs, CAT scans and other technologically advanced means of helping to diagnose a problem can be great aids but it is necessary to remember that these are tools and not the end-all of diagnosis.
An example: I had a patient telling me how he had terrible pain in his right lower back and leg.
During the interview, he explained how he had undergone an MRI and it showed terrible damage to that side of his back. I asked to see the MRI report.
The MRI did show terrible damage to the man’s lower back. The problem was that all of the damage was on his LEFT side which had no pain. The MRI report stated that the right side of his back showed no damage and no problems.
When I showed this to him, he was flabbergasted. He stated that no one had noticed this before. This case makes an important point.
The MRI was a tool. In this case it was an ineffective tool. It did not help diagnose why he was in such pain.
To further play on this example, back pain can be caused when intervertebral discs press backward against the spine. This pain is exacerbated when the patient leans forward because the mechanical forces help compress the discs backward against the spine.
However, when a person has an x-ray or MRI, the person lies flat in a neutral position. This neutral position prevents the MRI from showing how a different position can affect tissues in a negative way.
There are countless examples of how imaging or lab tests do not necessarily show an existing problem when one actually exists. If you feel something is wrong and you are told nothing is wrong, trust your body.
