Chiropractic Care

In a previous post, I explained all about my scoliosis and loss of cervical lordosis. Well I have been going to the chiropractor for almost 6 weeks now. I have had 11 visits over the course of this time, will go again twice this week, then next week starts my once a week visits. 

Obviously I don’t know if we’ve made any progress in my neck because we are waiting until the end to take new x-rays. But I can tell you in detail about what happens during my adjustments. First, I lay on my stomach and Dr. Dee pushes around on my back to find tension spots. This always is kind of painful but feels good at the same time. I think the pain mostly has to do with my curve, but regardless it feels pretty good and bad, if that makes any sense. He then applies quick, firm pressure starting in the middle of my back working his way to upper back. I’d say its 2-3 times he cracks me in this position. Every now and then there is like one small spot that doesn’t crack with the rest and he applies pressure again. I wouldn’t call this part painful, except for the 2 seconds following the crack. Then relief. 

Next, he has me lay on my right side, left knee bends over right straight leg. He takes my right arm and pulls it to grab my left shoulder. Then he applies pressure, once, twice with his whole body to kind of twist me. Then flip and do same on the other side. I don’t think I ever really feel much of a crack when he does this.

Then, he gets me to lay on my back. This is probably my favorite part because of the pain relief. He comes around to where my head is to sit and uses his fingers in kind of a hook shape to pull up towards the base of my skull on my neck muscles. I’ve tried, but this is really hard to do to myself because my hands cannot come at the same angle he does, but its feels awesome. He usually spends a bit longer on my neck (because this is what we are working to correct), finding knots and applying pressure to get them to release. Every now and then he finds a good one and it’s painful when he’s moving over it and pushing into it, but I know there relief will be so worth it so I suck it up. I’ve only had to say “Ow” twice to get him to lighten up. Once the knot releases, it’s like my whole body just relaxes and turns into jello. Once loose, its time for him to crack my neck. He grabs my head, supporting all the weight. You kind of have to focus on letting him control your movement and not tensing up. Once he feels that he has complete control, he snaps it to the right! I usually feel what I would call and immediate back of head headache when he does this. But he uses his fingers again to apply pressure to the spots on my neck close to my skull and this relieves the headache. Then he repeats the exact same thing to the left. 

Now, he gets me to lay on my stomach again. Sometimes he uses the table to lift up  at my hips and he pushes quick firm pressure on each hip/right above butt. I believe this is supposed to help align my hips, but I think with scoliosis that’s kind of hard to achieve. Plus, I don’t really feel much when he does that either. He also detaches the bottom half of the table, so from my hips down, he has complete control to move them side to side and all around; this always feels good. His last step in my adjustment, he applies pressure in several spots on both sides of my spine from the mid back on down while moving the lower body control portion of the table up and down. I think this is to help loosen up and stretch out my spine and muscles surrounding. This is another one of those painful but feels good at the same time motions. 

Last portion of my appointments is spent on the Wobble chair with head weights strapped to my forehead. The wobble chair is pretty cool, as it allow me to tilt in any direction 360 degrees. I believe it is supposed to help strengthen my back muscles, but I really enjoy the stretching I feel while tilting. My lower back does a lot of “clicking/popping” during this but he said that’s normal. As far as the weights go, I think he is working me up to 15 minutes over time. Not sure what I am at now because we always chit chat during this portion. The weights make me hold my neck back and use my muscles to support my head. The right side of my neck is usually hurting by the time the buzzer goes off, so I feel that it’s working to strengthen everything. The buzzer concludes my appointment. 

The past 2 appointments, Dr. Dee has said that things have improved so much since my first adjustment, and I am cracking the way I am supposed to now. I don’t notice too much of a difference other than I feel like more is cracking at once, and (as weird as this sounds) it’s more of a juicier crack instead of dry like it was in the beginning. I don’t know if that’s the best way to describe it, but it’s what I could come up with. 

There has been two appointments, when my Doc was on vacation and I saw the other, Dr. Geski. His methods are a little bit different. I was super nervous seeing him the first time because I was scared that he didn’t know my history, he hadn’t seen my x-rays, and does he even know that I have scoliosis?! But all was well. He cracked my back while I laid on it, which was strange to me. He handed me this triangle shaped pillow to wrap my arms around. Then he lifts you up, places hand under back (which was scary and painful), but then he applied quick pressure and CRACKKKKK! Felt really good once it was over. Then he does the same thing a bit lower down. My neck being the part we are trying to correct, he did use an Electric Correction Gun/Adjustment tool on my neck; that was an interesting feeling but I enjoyed it. I wish Dr. Dee would use that on me, but I guess every doctor has their own way of doing things. 

Once Dr. Geski moved me to the next table and had me lay on my stomach, I think he realized then that I have scoliosis. He found this one spot to the left of my spine, right at the curve that was all knotted up. (This spot is always super sensitive.) He said “Wow! Are you always this tight right here?” I could barely manage a “yea” through the intense pain I was feeling at the pressure he was applying in a circular motion right on the knot. I continued to breathe through the pain because I knew it would feel even better once he was done, which it did. After that he followed the rest of what Dr. Dee usually does. 

So this is what my chiropractic care has been like up to now. I guess I may be feeling a little different, like I don’t complain about being in pain as much. I haven’t had any of the numbness that I usually get. And now that I think of it, I haven’t really had the pinching burning feeling either that I sometimes get after a long day. I am still tense in my neck and shoulder area, but I work at a desk all day, then come home and work at a desk again for my part time job. I have tried to adjust the position of my computer screens to maybe alleviate it some. But I think as long as I am working at a computer, I will always experience that. So, I have nothing but good things to say about the care I have received so far from First Choice Chiropractic. I look forward to seeing updated x-rays at the end of my treatment plan. And I really look forward to my appointment tomorrow morning. All this writing about being cracked is making me want it to be time for my appointment because I always leave feeling like a million bucks!

Just need to get this off my chest...

Friday night, I went to Target and spent about an hour and a half trying to pick out gifts for a 5 year old little boy and two 2 year old little girls.

Saturday, we went to celebrate Leah’s 2^nd Birthday. Leah is Jonathan’s cousin’s daughter or Jonathan’s 2^nd cousin. We were also really excited to meet Leah’s little sister Madison who was born 4 months ago, but they live in NC which is why we are just now meeting her. Of course Shannon (mom) let me hold her and get some of that baby luvin! She was absolutely adorable and completely content.

At Leah’s party, Jonathan’s grandparents were there and asked are we expecting yet… and I said really quickly “We’re not.” Jonathan then says, “But she wishes we were.” I quickly just whispered please don’t talk about it, and turned my head away from them fighting back tears. Once regaining my composure I was able to continue enjoying the party. 

Shortly after that, Jonathan’s cousin’s fiancé Lynsey showed up. I like her a lot so we stuck together and chit chatted. During our conversation I found out that she also has PCOS. What an awesome feeling when you find someone that not only understands everything your body is going through, but is also going through the same or similar. We didn’t get to talk a whole lot, because it’s not really something you talk about out in public. But I did let her know how long we’ve been trying, and we discovered we are both taking Provera every month to try to regulate our cycles. It felt so nice to have her know what I am going through physically. Plus she said she was going to keep me in her prayers, which just makes me feel so happy to know that not only are my prayers going up, but also friends and family are praying for me as well. 

On top of that, my longtime friend Jessica’s daughter, Remington, also turned two and celebrated her Birthday at the same time. Unfortunately I cannot be in two places at once and we had already committed to Leah’s party. I was sad I missed seeing Remi, but hope to see her and give her her birthday gift soon.

Lastly, my friend Amanda’s son Hayden turned 5 on the 3^rd and of course I’m always late to getting his gift to him, but it’s the thought that counts. I’ll plan on having them over for dinner one night so I can give him his gift and spend some time hanging out. 

Celebrating all of my friends and families children’s birthdays is extremely bittersweet. I see their little families, and the happiness all of them experience at seeing their child happy, and I just can’t help but hurt a little for the child I dream of loving.

Happier news, my best friend is pregnant again! I am so very happy and excited for her. Her daughter Lola is kind of the first baby that I get to see and hang out around regularly and I just love her to pieces. I can’t wait for this new baby to be born so I can love on him or her just as much. Even still, it took me a couple days to be able to go see my friend and give her a huge hug and congratulations. And I truly mean it when I say I am so very happy for them. When she first sent me the picture of her positive pregnancy test I could have jumped and screamed for joy if I wasn’t at work when I got it. Even so, that evening after work when I got home, I literally sobbed for a good 45 minutes. Big old tears, can’t catch your breath, out loud sobbing that resulted in a headache. I was having the hardest time getting a grip. When will it be my turn? Of course her pregnancy is still secret at this time, but I told my husband and cried to him a little when he got home, and he just doesn’t understand. Pull yourself together Katelyn. 

I finally was able to go visit with her and share in the excitement a couple of days later. I am doing much better now but still kind of hard to be around someone who is pregnant, wishing I was going through all of the exciting changes. I dream of the day I can finally experience morning sickness, and I guarantee I will be smiling the whole time I’m puking.

I feel like I cannot get away from the constant reminder that I am not pregnant but want to be more than anything. Next tid bit, there is an older gentleman named Washington that I see quite often in the mornings before work. We both stop at the Wawa regularly and we have kind of developed a friendship over the past 2 years we’ve known each other. We have small talk and wish each other a happy day. Sometimes we go a while without seeing each other, so this morning was probably the first time in about a month that we have seen each other. Saw him in the parking lot as I was headed back to my car, so I went up to chat for a bit. As I was walking up to him, he asked, with his hand on his stomach, “Ohhhh, are we coming along?” Obviously, he was asking if I am pregnant. I told him, “No not pregnant, just gained some weight.” I think he felt bad for asking because he apologized and kind of stuttered a little. I don’t know why I felt the desire to tell him, but I did. I told him that we have been trying since November and it just hasn’t happened yet. He must have sensed the hurt I was feeling because he gave me a big hug (that’s a first) and told me “You’re beautiful as always.” I don’t know why this keeps happening to me. I guess it’s because I am married and everyone expected me to be pregnant by now, or maybe it’s because I’m about 30lbs overweight right now and look like I am expecting, or maybe it’s just that people do not understand… IT’S NOT OKAY TO ASK A WOMAN IF SHE’S PREGNANT! EVER! I got in my car, let out a big sigh and choked back a sob that threatened to escape while at the same time asking “God, why would you put me through this over and over again!?”, then drove my butt to work so I could get busy and be distracted.

Its family, its friends, its policyholders at work, its complete strangers. I promise you I get asked AT LEAST once a week if I am pregnant.

Today was supposed to be a busy Monday at work. My office manager is on vacation this week, so I am manning the office by myself. Past two weeks have been swamped every day. But today, the phone has rang maybe three times, I’ve had only two people come pay bills, and my beginning of day report had not the first late notice for me to do. So its quiet and slow and only making my brain spin. This is why I am writing this blog post while sitting at my office desk, nothing to do except think about not being pregnant.

Okay I am sure this is a long boring post. I got it all out there. Now, let me try to distract myself with something else now.