Okay, well it wasn’t really my first treatment…but it was my first in a series of 12 weekly sessions (which by the way I won due to the generosity of Dr. Marty and Dr. Karen!) I have been receiving chiropractic care for 20 years now from many different doctors. I have been coming to the Achtermann’s for 7 or 8 years now on a rather intermittent basis. In my lumbar area, I have a 23 degree scoliotic curve. This causes ocassional low back and hip discomfort, but mostly I seem to experience pain and tension in my upperback, shoulders (especially the left) and neck with periodic headaches. The areas of tension can almost be traced along the trapezious – up to the occiput, down and out to the acromion of the shoulder and down through the mid thoracics – both sides. Generally I just feel the discomfort on one side, but the next day it will be on the other side. If I don’t keep my chest and shoulder area stretched and massaged, I can experience thoracic outlet syndrome as well as tightness in the chest, especially when doing endurance activities (mind you, endurance for me is exercising our 16 year old mutt by running around the island in the kitchen – seriously, that much can cause pain down my arm and into my thumb!)
About 20 years ago I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I mostly manage it through stress management, yoga, moderate exercise, diet, massage and sleep.
Back to the first treatment of the series…May 23rd – Dr. Karen did the computer scan and found that there is some tension in my neck (around C3 I believe it was), my mid thoracic (T8?) and a little in the lumbar area relating to digestion. I was happy to see that I was as bad off as I usually feel. Stress has been low and I am exercising regularly. I was a bit afraid that the scan was going to light up like a Christmas tree! After the treatment, I didn’t notice anything remarkable. I did sleep better that night – I’ve been having some trouble with sleep lately, particularly falling asleep. But within a few nights, I was back to my tossing and turning. I did experience some tension in my neck leading to a slight headache, but that is pretty par for the course.