The Engineer and Orthopedic Abdominal Pain

A healthy 30-year-old man experiences worsening abdominal pain for months with no apparent cause. He enters the healthcare system, first with his primary care physician, then many other specialists. He is looking for an answer to his problem, a diagnosis, and a fix, only to discover they don't have one. Yet. But they're going to keep looking. How long is too long to wait? What can be done if diagnostic pathways do not pan out? Where do you draw the line on diagnostic procedures? What would this problem look like from a different perspective? Can his pain generator be discovered? Treated? Cured?

This is our second story in an ongoing series. It illustrates lessons learned from a transformative moment in a PT's career. Like all of our stories, it is drawn from real-world experience.