DEAR DR. SCHIERLING,
CAN YOU HELP ME WITH………?
I am a (insert your age, sex, and vital statistics here). I am willing to travel from (insert your city, state, and / or country here) if you are (certain / confident / convinced / absolutely positive, can provide some sort of vague guarantee) that you can help me with (insert whatever health issue you are dealing with here —- CHRONIC PAIN, TENDINOSIS, CHRONIC NECK PAIN, FASCIAL ADHESIONS, PIRIFORMIS SYNDROME, etc, etc, etc). Here is my medical history. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
(Insert your name here)
Dear Potential Patient,
Because I help lots of desperate people from all over the world whose lives have been turned upside down by CHRONIC PAIN & CHRONIC ILLNESS, I invariably get numerous emails similar to the generic one above — quite possibly similar to the one you sent me. Although I try to respond to all of them, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer volume (as well as the severity and desperation of so many of these situations).
When it comes to treating patients, unfortunately, being “confident“, “positive“, or “reassuring“, is not in and of itself going to help you get better. Proverbially speaking; the only two things in life that are certain are death and taxes. The truth is, I never know whether I can help a person until after the fact. I would love to tell you otherwise. I would love to hype myself. I would love to sound like I am better or smarter than everyone else. I would love to tell you that I have everything figured out. I would love to be able to tell you in advance how you will respond to my treatment simply by looking at your history. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Although I cannot make you promises, there are steps that I take to assure that everything possible has been done to make your visit to see me as fruitful as possible.
The most important of these is getting a complete history from you via email. I would guess that at least 75% of the emailed histories I get, I either weed people out as far as my ability to help them is concerned (HERE), or put them into the “HIGHLY DOUBTFUL” category. While many problems are easier to speculate whether or not I will be able to help (‘speculate‘ sounds much better than ‘guess‘), it is simply impossible to know how you will respond until I treat you. HERE is one way that I weed out patients, using Tendinosis as an example. The bottom line is that while I really do care about you and your situation, I do not want you traveling hundreds — maybe thousands of miles — to my clinic unless I really think I have a good chance of helping you improve your situation.
If you have watched a few of the TESTIMONIAL VIDEOS, you have undoubtedly seen how rapid the results are in most of the cases I accept. With local patients, it might take a couple of treatments to know if Scar Tissue Remodeling is going to work. However, with our OUT OF STATE AND INTERNATIONAL PATIENTS whom I spend anywhere from 1-3 hours with, you will know in one treatment. For more information, please visit our FAQ page on Tissue Remodeling. Again, my goal is not to sound pessimistic, but to make a potential trip to Mountain View as pleasant and fruitful as possible.
A REAL EXAMPLE FROM EARLIER IN THE WEEK
Hi. I’m approaching 60 and have seriously painful hip joints due to (I’m told) trauma. I have had Skiing crashes, riding in back of a pickup truck crash, fell off a balcony, bicycles etc, all a pretty long time ago. Nothing debilitating at the time. Used to jog about an hour a day. I’m 5’10” 150 lbs.
At around 40 years of age, one hip started to bother me I actually don’t recall for sure which hip. I started to limp, particularly during high humidity. The pain has increased over the years. These days I can’t walk without a cane or crutch and some days that’s more difficult than others. Difficult to pick something up off the floor. Cannot walk up stairs normally.
Two Doctors (one an Orthopedic surgeon) tell me based on X Rays that I need both hips replaced. Bone on bone. The right hip is worse but they’re both pretty bad (speaking from my pain point of view). The left might be catching up a bit. I have not scheduled surgery because I can’t imagine doing so at least not yet. For roughly the last week I’ve had what seems to be along the lines of Piriformis Syndrome as described on this website (on the right side of my upper butt). In fact computer surfing trying to figure out the cause of this new weird pain is what somehow led me to this website.
Since this weird new pain appeared I can barely bend forward from a sitting position to put on pants socks or shoes. It almost feels like what I imagine a torn muscle might feel like. I can, however, bend forward from a standing position and touch the floor and this doesn’t incur that pain. I don’t know if this is a complication of years of limping or what. I am also a drummer. While I can still play I am unable to carry drum stuff around and play out.
People tell me hip replacement is common, not that big deal, etc. I couldn’t disagree more. The idea of surgery and possible complications and the fact that fake hips wear out, are a few of a multitude of reasons I do not want to undergo this procedure. Twice. Both hips. I’ve also been investigating procedures where ones own stem cells are injected into the injured joints.
I find your website is very uplifting to read. Naturally I’m wondering if you think there is a possibility you could help but I realize it might not be possible. In any event your website has a wealth of extremely interesting info. Sorry for such a long email.Thank you for your time.
Peter
DR. RUSS:
Hello Peter,
Would love to tell you that I can help. Unfortunately, bone on bone hips can cause Piriformis Syndrome-like pain. Once you are to that point, you either replace them or you suffer. Although they are doing some amazing things with Stem Cells, I do not know of another alternative once they are this far gone. I’m with you — I hate surgery also. But a trip to see me now would likely be a waste.
Sincerely,
Dr. Russ
PETER:
Hello Dr Russ, Thank you for reading my email and responding so quickly. I was kind of afraid you might say that. By the way I have been taking Catalyn for a few years (on and off cause I run out and stuff). Sometimes I attempt to investigate vitamin and supplements, which kind are best, which company is best, etc. There is an incredible amount of confusing nonsense and misinformation on the subject and I naturally always wonder which company funded which study. Seeing as your website speaks highly of Standard Process, I’m sticking with them. Once again I think your website is awesome. Thanks again, Peter
DR. RUSS:
I wish you the best Peter. II totally agree with you about nonsense on the web. If you have a few minutes sometime, go to Standard Process’s website and see how they make their supplements. Amazing difference!
