5/16/2006

Fine, so I'm a hypocrite, after saying I wasn't very likely to go to a chiropractor, the pain in my back and leg got so mind-buggeringly awful over the past few weeks I went for an appointment with one today, and my impressions are pretty positive. The sciatica has been awful enough I was beginning to worry whether or not I'd be able to keep up the day job, given I spend as much time lying down next to the desk at work waiting for pain to pass as I do behind it designing stuff. Progress on the book has at times been slow, because I've been in too much pain to write.

The process was pretty interesting: there's a low table made of moveable, leather-bound slats you lie on, face down. The chiropractor - a chatty American woman - went to various points on my back and WHAM, she'd twist my back and force me down at the same time. The slats dropped into a v-shape under me, and I yelled as much in surprise as in pain (I'd be warned a good bit of hollering was totally fine). Then she'd move to another part of my spine and, WHAM, CRUNCH.

At some point, I may have started giggling. I honestly felt a lot better, in some ways better than I had in months. On the way home, I felt ... a bit spaced out, really. Light headed.

Within seconds of the manipulation it was clear I could move my left leg in certain directions I hadn't been able to move it in a long, long time without considerable pain and severe pins and needles. It's still too early to really judge how well the whole thing works, given this is only one visit, but I'm back tomorrow afternoon for another session of body slamming and spine crunching. I remain hopeful.

2 comments:

roryg said...

My local chiropractor succeeded in sorting my back out after ~10 years of low grade pain.

He took an x-ray, had a look, told me I had flat feet. Several sessions of manipulation and a set of orthotics in my shoes and my back is now 95% better :)

Recommended.

Gary Gibson, science fiction writer said...

It turns out one leg is a centimeter shorter than the other, which could indeed be part of the problem. I tried wearing raises in one shoe, and it did feel a little better, actually.