Well, walk better, anyway. Yesterday I went to the chiropractor. I've wrenched my back a second time in two months so I thought that this time I would get it fixed.
The weather fit my mood: Overcast and drizzly. It was difficult to walk, sit, bend, and everything else that requires you to "put your back into it". Then there was the sleep problem. It was difficult to sleep in one position and even more difficult to get into a better position. So most of the night was spent, not tossing and turning, but debating whether or not to suffer even more pain to get into another position that may or may not make me feel better. Needless to say, I was quite tired.
When I got in, I was given a stack of paperwork to fill out. You know, the basics: if I had insurance, who to call in case of an emergency, allergies, family history, etc, etc. The only difference to the paperwork you would normally fill out at a regular doctor's office is that there are two more pages in which you try to describe your back pain.
After all that was done, I was shown a 20 minute video where they try to explain what was going to happen at your appointment while showing what appeared to be a chiropractor, twisting, knuckling, karate chopping, and jumping on some poor soul. I was assured that this was all completely safe and I had nothing to worry about. *eek*
Then the chiropractor came in along with his daughter, the apprentice. We talked small talk for a moment (I knew him from the past) and he left. His daughter - *ahem* - The apprentice then proceeded to examine me, like making me lay flat on my stomach and raise my legs backwards. Then I had to stand up and lift one foot, then the other. Then I had to look over each shoulder.
Then she took x-rays. The cool think about the x-ray machine is that it was imprinted on a giant cartridge that was then placed into what looked like a GIANT SD-card reader. The x-rays were then scanned into the computer, and the images were erased from the over-sized SD-Cards so they could be used for another patient. I even got to wear one of those hospital garments that let your backside hang out. Fortunately, I was allowed to get dressed before the real work began.
Let's get crackin'!
The first thing she did was make me slouch in a chair. Yeah, I know. A Chiropractor's office that promotes a healthy posture making one to slouch in a chair is somewhat (for lack of a better word) ironic. Then she kind of rolled my head around a bit, told me to drop my shoulders a little and...
CRACK!
The sound was so loud to me that it startled me, embarrassingly so. The Chiropractor was watching at that point and said that my face now matches my dark pink shirt. The second time I was ready, but it still seemed painfully loud... And yet, it wasn't painful. Not in the least, but it was definitely unnerving.
Then they put me in this giant contraption that seemed to come out of the pages of a history book on medieval torture. You step into it standing up and then a motor turns it so that you are on your stomach. Then she proceeded to do what felt like aggressive CPR on my upper back. More cracking, but not as loud.
Then she had me lay on this bench, and put me in a distorted pretzel position and then cracked my back. The cracking took less than 10 minutes.
That was it. I was done. I instinctively, stooped down to get my purse.
No pain.
I did all I could to NOT jump for joy, as to spoil the moment in wrenching my back yet again. I was asked to walk to the wall and back, and we all noticed that I no longer walked "weird".
Today's weather fit my mood. It was a beautiful sunny day. Not too hot, not to humid. The air was clear. It seemed that I could breath again - and walk again. I took three 15 minutes walks with my son.
Yay!
The weather fit my mood: Overcast and drizzly. It was difficult to walk, sit, bend, and everything else that requires you to "put your back into it". Then there was the sleep problem. It was difficult to sleep in one position and even more difficult to get into a better position. So most of the night was spent, not tossing and turning, but debating whether or not to suffer even more pain to get into another position that may or may not make me feel better. Needless to say, I was quite tired.
When I got in, I was given a stack of paperwork to fill out. You know, the basics: if I had insurance, who to call in case of an emergency, allergies, family history, etc, etc. The only difference to the paperwork you would normally fill out at a regular doctor's office is that there are two more pages in which you try to describe your back pain.
After all that was done, I was shown a 20 minute video where they try to explain what was going to happen at your appointment while showing what appeared to be a chiropractor, twisting, knuckling, karate chopping, and jumping on some poor soul. I was assured that this was all completely safe and I had nothing to worry about. *eek*
Then the chiropractor came in along with his daughter, the apprentice. We talked small talk for a moment (I knew him from the past) and he left. His daughter - *ahem* - The apprentice then proceeded to examine me, like making me lay flat on my stomach and raise my legs backwards. Then I had to stand up and lift one foot, then the other. Then I had to look over each shoulder.
Then she took x-rays. The cool think about the x-ray machine is that it was imprinted on a giant cartridge that was then placed into what looked like a GIANT SD-card reader. The x-rays were then scanned into the computer, and the images were erased from the over-sized SD-Cards so they could be used for another patient. I even got to wear one of those hospital garments that let your backside hang out. Fortunately, I was allowed to get dressed before the real work began.
Let's get crackin'!
The first thing she did was make me slouch in a chair. Yeah, I know. A Chiropractor's office that promotes a healthy posture making one to slouch in a chair is somewhat (for lack of a better word) ironic. Then she kind of rolled my head around a bit, told me to drop my shoulders a little and...
CRACK!
The sound was so loud to me that it startled me, embarrassingly so. The Chiropractor was watching at that point and said that my face now matches my dark pink shirt. The second time I was ready, but it still seemed painfully loud... And yet, it wasn't painful. Not in the least, but it was definitely unnerving.
Then they put me in this giant contraption that seemed to come out of the pages of a history book on medieval torture. You step into it standing up and then a motor turns it so that you are on your stomach. Then she proceeded to do what felt like aggressive CPR on my upper back. More cracking, but not as loud.
Then she had me lay on this bench, and put me in a distorted pretzel position and then cracked my back. The cracking took less than 10 minutes.
That was it. I was done. I instinctively, stooped down to get my purse.
No pain.
I did all I could to NOT jump for joy, as to spoil the moment in wrenching my back yet again. I was asked to walk to the wall and back, and we all noticed that I no longer walked "weird".
Today's weather fit my mood. It was a beautiful sunny day. Not too hot, not to humid. The air was clear. It seemed that I could breath again - and walk again. I took three 15 minutes walks with my son.
Yay!
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