I walked into the chiropractor's empty office, checked in and patiently sat down and waited to be called in. The receptionist had me fill out a little questionnaire about what problems I've been having. She then brought me into another little room. The doctor came into the room, asked me some questions then checked my posture. He then had me lay down on my front and felt around on my back to see where I was 'tight'. "Thats where your headaches are coming from," he said while touching an area on the back of my neck. At that point, I started to regret ticking off "headaches" on the questionnaire. Personally, I think my headaches are just the result of a very inquisitive, loud child. I didn't want him focusing on that. I just wanted my back fixed. He also pointed out the two spots in my back where I was having the pain. "Yup, thse are the spots." He then ushered me into another room where I posed to have x-rays done. I did get x-rays the week before that my family doctor sent me in for and I didn't get a call back so I know "bone-wise" my back was okay. The chiropractor looked at my x-ray and didn't tell me anything - except for the fact my spine was a little curved. He then tried to book me in for some workshop the next day and that's when he would go over my results. I'm thinking, "Well, it can't be anything serious then if he's not going to tell me them now." As I kept mentioning that I was in so much pain, he said he would give me an adjustment right away. I was thinking, "Yay - hooray! I can get some relief!" On the same hand, I had no idea what to expect.
I layed on the table in odd positions while he jumped on my back twice and lastly on my neck. Loud, long cracking sounds came out of my body. I left being in a bit of shock but still appreciative. It wasn't until about 20 minutes later I started to not feel too good. I was very, very sore. I spent the next 3 hours laying on the couch. The next morning, it felt like I was in a car crash and my neck had whiplash. I went to make an appointment with my family doctor but he wasn't in so I saw his replacement. He was very nice and also went over my x-ray results that I had last week. There wasn't anything that showed up that can explain why I'm having so much pain:
I do have pain directly over my L1 (where there is "wedging") but I've had pain there for over 5 years. As for the rest of it, it just basically says I have a slight curvature of the spine, a bit of "sway back" and a couple of bone spurs. Nothing that truly explains why I'm essentially in chronic pain. The doctor explained that the muscles are tightening over the course of the day which explains that I''m in agony by the evening.
He recommended me seeing a chiropractor. I said, "Actually, that's why I decided to come see you. The chiropractor made me worse." He then said, if I didn't get immediate relief, then it's probably not going to work for me and that's when he recommended physiotherapy. He also said that I should continue taking a Aleve twice a day (morning/night) and Robaxacet (with acetaminophen not ibuprofen). Both pain killers have helped minimally but it takes the "edge" off. I'm not interested in taking pain killers forever, though. I'm not even 40 - God help me (and my liver) 20 years from now. He also recommended low impact sports and core strengthening - which was to be expected and I was already working on, anyway. Things like swimming, light weight training, stationary bike, stretching, etc. He then told me to come back in 3 weeks if the pain hasn't subsided.
I've booked a physio appointment for next week, hopefully, it will be better than the chiro. I'm getting more and more frustrated by the day, so here's hoping that something works soon! In the meantime, I'll just be thankful that the weather has been amazing and enjoy my time in the pool (and on the deck loungers)!
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