New Chiropractor & Update

What an interesting day. Jason and I were given a referral from Steve (the owner of the clinic where we have massage and osteopathy) to his long-time friend who happens to be a very successful Chiropractor. Kim telephoned over and got us both appointments and because we were referred, we got a special rate.

When I walked into the wellness center that is owned and operated by this man, I was amazed. Once you open the door, on the left there is a weeping wall (waterfall) that was gorgeous. Upon going through the next door to the main reception, there is this extremely long reception area/desk with all these glass plaques on the wall behind them. Each plaque has a word on it, such as: Health, Peace, Tranquility, Body, Mind, Spirit, Growth, Spirituality, etc. It was beautiful. This is just what I’m looking for. Someone who finally gets what Alternative Health Care is all about.

The clinic has 3 full time chiropractors, holistic nutritionist, acupuncture, & massage therapy. As I’m studying holistic nutrition, I won’t need that service, as for acupuncture, I don’t really use it much at the moment, and I’ll keep my massages with Steve’s clinic and use Bonnie and Kim for that service as I have been for the last year with great success.

The clinic was huge and very impressive. Dr. Will (owner of the clinic) sat down with me and his first impression by just looking at me that there was a serious problem with my neck. He asked if I had been in a car accident before even looking at my medical history form. So far, I’m very impressed.

After x-rays that he took of my neck and the qazillion more I had done at the Radiologist and he scheduled me for his orientation class on Wednesday which was amazing. He spent 2 hours with all the new patients, explaining what chiropractic was all about, showing us examples of x-rays and teaching us what we were looking at.

Basically, there are 5 stages of deterioration. There is normal, Phase 1 is slightly out of whack, Phase 2 has lost the curve in the neck, Phase 3 has the beginnings of the joints fusing, and Phase 4 is completely fused and there is no way to reverse the process. He explained everything so very well and how the spinal cord affects disease in the body. He also mentioned a lot of things that we’re already learning in school.

After the orientation, he took me back to his office and displayed my x-rays. Before he said a word, I got scared. I could see without him saying a word, that my neck was indeed in trouble. There was no curve whatsoever, some of the joints lost their spaces in between, and there was this spur like thing sticking out of the base of my neck.

He then explained that I was in between stages 2 & 3 and that it was a good thing that I came in when I did. This probably explains all of the headaches I’ve been having. He looked at the x-rays that I brought in with me and showed me that my pelvis is out and tilted, that my spine after the cervical area shifts to the left instead of going straight down the body, but the curve in the lower spine is good.

The radiologist’s report showed that my left femer is 8mm. longer than the right and the right tibia is 3mm. longer than the left. I’ve complained for months to the other chiropractor that my left leg felt longer than right and nothing was ever done about it. With regular treatments Will can get the curve in my neck back, adjust my pelvis so it’s not tilting to the left and adjust my left knee so that in time, things will level out a bit more.

I really feel like we’ve found the right guy. My treatment plan is going to take 18 months to get “back on track”, which so happens to be the name of his clinic. He recommended that I stop all weight training for the next 6 weeks while the adjustment process begins. Oh shucks, I’ll have to stop seeing Amy the personal trainer from hell for a while… hehehehe. No weight training, but I can do treadmill, exercise bike and all my stretches. He just doesn’t want the weight training to interfere with the adjustment process and basically retraining my neck to sit properly and get the curve back. I’ll have tons of homework to do at home for this as well.

What really bothers me is this was never caught earlier. No x-rays were ever taken or even recommended at Ed’s clinic. In fact, I should have had treatment for this back in 1998 after the accident and then it wouldn’t have gotten to this state. I can honestly say I’m a bit angry right now that this was never addressed in the last 7 years since the accident. GRRRRRRR!!! Our healthcare system just pain SUCKS!!!

Jason has some work to do as well, he’ll find out next week what needs to be done, but it’s obvious that his posture isn’t quite right and I’ve seen how he sits in front of the computer. It just looks wrong to me. I would be in so much pain if I sat like that… but then again, my issues are just different. We each have our own issues in life to deal with. More updates next week when we find out what Jason needs to have done.