I ♥ My Chiropractor

I’ve loved chiropractors since I was a teen, when, wracked by migraines, the chiropractor suggested resting in a darkened room and eating mashed potatoes (my favorite comfort food of all time!).

I love that our health insurance covers chiropractic visits, and, in the past 6 years, I have needed a two or three pretty serious adjustment series. And this is not your father’s chiropractic, either. There’s no more yanking of the head, tugging of the limbs, or cracking of the back. It’s all gentle presses and soft nudges. At first I didn't think it would do any good (you know something’s adjusted when you hear “crrrrAAAAACKKKKK”), but hey, the pain went away and motion returned.

The practice I visit includes heat therapy, ultrasound, massage, and electrical current (really, it’s not bad, and this is the one instance in which a masochist like me can still get the “if it hurts it must be helping” thing out of my system) in the treatment.

For about two weeks now, knitting and typing have been bugging me; I’d feel a “pop” every time I’d knit a stitch or moved the mouse around, and there would be intermittent numbness. When I went for an appointment on Wednesday, the receptionist said, You haven’t been here since March last year!” My chiro said “You haven’t had an x-ray since 2001!”

“Uh oh” I thought, “Are they gonna take advantage of that?” I got the x-rays taken, I got an adjustment and some ultrasound, and made a follow-up appointment for this morning.

When I entered the examination room today, my x-rays were already up on the light board, and I braced myself for a description of terrible damage to my spine. I prepared to argue that of course things would be out of whack: I was feeling pain, and therefore we couldn’t just accept these x-rays as proof that I needed several months of therapy.

“Your x-rays look pretty good.”

“They do?”

“Sure. There’s a bit of incorrect bending here, and a small bone spur there, but nowhere near the kind of damage that you should be worried about.”

“No?”

“Nope. Your spine is in pretty good shape, all things considered.”

Yay for my chiropractor. She isn’t out to gouge me. She told the truth, and didn’t scare a patient into getting too much work done. I still have to follow up with several visits for the shoulder/elbow thing, but hey, who wouldn’t want a bit of massage a couple times a week for 2-3 weeks?

I ♥ you Dr. P., and I’m sorry I ever doubted you.