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!
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