(no subject)

[killing_rose]

Dear Chiropractor:

I <3 you. No, for serious. I've gone from migraines every couple days to maybe once a week. Maybe. That said, I don't particularly have funds and that thing called insurance. So thank you for working out a payment plan.


Dear Body:

It'd be awesome if we could get down to one visit to the chiro a month. As of right now, I can feel the ache building, and I don't have another appointment until Thursday. I think. My brain's the consistency of soup at the moment, and I don't quite remember where I wrote it down.


Dear Ache-That-Signals-Pain:

Good lord, how long have you been building? Are you why I was generally Stereotypically Blonde at work today? Because if you are--and I suspect you are--I am not amused.  Neither is my printer, which had to do three projects over several times.

Also. If you've decided after 10 years to start corresponding to my hormones, I might be a wee bit perturbed. I'm just saying. I noticed the coincidental timing.


Dear Meds:

I don't miss you. I mean, I miss abortives a little bit, but not noticeably enough to think that you were doing as much good as my doctor swore you were.

Comments

[untonuggan]

Good to know that chiropractic care helps...I'll have to file that away under "useful knowledge."

Thanks for participating! And sorry you're dealing with migraines once a week, even that is killer (though better than what you were dealing with before).

[killing_rose]

My migraines are mostly caused by one of five things: a) not enough sleep, b) food triggers, c) the weather, d) stress, or e) what always seemed to be neck tension.

If you look at the x-rays, however, one of the discs in my neck is half-slipped where it shouldn't be, and when it's out, the migraines *really* want to get bad. There's also a very slight curve in my spine where there shouldn't be. And, to just make things worse, when things are out, I hurt too bad to sleep, causing trigger A.

So for me, chiropractic, craniosacral, and massage are all really helpful, mostly because--contrary to what doctors tried to tell me for years--most of my migraines are mechanical.

Acupuncture helps too. I should remember to book an appointment sometime soonish.

[syntaxofthings]

This reminds me that I'd like to put chiropractors and massage therapists on my list of People Everyone Should Be Seeing To Feel All-Over Good. I do think that if there weren't some type of stereotype (my mind is searching for the right word and failing) against chiropractors and massage therapists that everyone would be a lot happier.

[feuervogel]

I started physical therapy (at a sports medicine clinic) last spring, and I've needed less muscle relaxants. (My neuro prescribed them for my neck tension & related migraines.)

While chiropractic can release the tense muscles and improve alignment, retraining the muscles to proper posture is vital to maintaining that alignment. (It'll also make you have to go to the chiropractor less.)

[syntaxofthings]

While chiropractic can release the tense muscles and improve alignment, retraining the muscles to proper posture is vital to maintaining that alignment. (It'll also make you have to go to the chiropractor less.)

Agreed. I do pilates a couple of times a week and it makes me feel amazing, but I don't think it alone is doing all I need to take care of myself.

[feuervogel]

My physical therapist fixed things I didn't even know were wrong with me. I'd been doing pilates for a year or so before I started PT, and that wasn't helping with my posture. (General fitness, yes.) PT gives you weird postures to hold that isolate certain muscles to balance them. It's increased the effect of pilates -- in no small part because I'd been using overdeveloped accessory muscles, like the quadricep instead of the inner thigh -- and made a lot of my pain go away. (I got the referral for chronic low back and hip pain.)

[killing_rose]

I do chiropractic and craniosacral along with (when I have time and sanity and spoons and the weather cooperates) biking and yoga, and I know full well that the headaches'll go down even further when I can manage yoga on a regular basis again.

(Or the 93+ inches of snow thaws and I can bike again. Whichever comes first at this point.)

I think the problem is that people think that either chiropractors/massage/craniosacral/etc are quacks or they've had a run in with a style that didn't work for them. God knows I had a chiro who was good, knowledgeable...and making my migraines worse because he manipulated everything too much.

I had no idea that there were different styles nor that a chiropractor that specializes in women and children would help me so much more than a chiropractor that specializes in general body manipulation.

And my roommate still has to be coaxed into going because she had a run-in with a chiropractor who used tools exclusively, purposely manipulated her muscles more than anything else, and told her that she didn't have bones out of alignment, just muscles that weren't where they should be. She was hurting for days after that.

(Our chiro, when I convinced roommate to go Had Words To Say about that.)

[syntaxofthings]

I think the problem is that people think that either chiropractors/massage/craniosacral/etc are quacks or they've had a run in with a style that didn't work for them. God knows I had a chiro who was good, knowledgeable...and making my migraines worse because he manipulated everything too much.

Probably something like that. Plus there's some sort of stigma about getting some regular help. I think that's what I was trying to get at. These things are good for you!