Because of my daily prolonged computer use at work (and sometimes at home), my shoulders and neck feel like they're constantly tense and tight. My neck has become weak and gets tired easily. I know frequent breaks are the key to not getting repetetive stress injuries, but it's easy to skip when you're in the middle of something, or lots of somethings.
Someone suggested I see a chiropractor before I get some kind of damage from all this. So I went. According to the chiropractor, some damage has already been done. My neck seems to have lost its natural curve and is on its way to further degeneration, which would involve worn out spinal discs and bone spurs. She evaluated my range of motion and indicated that my neck was the most limited, due to my constantly tense muscles. She also said that I had mild scoliosis, which is a sideways curvature of the spine.
This was news to me, but it's possible that that this unnatural curvature was my spine adapting to constant muscle stress. I'm scheduled to see her 3 times a week for a couple of months to realign everything, then I will need to change my habits in order to prevent this from happening again.
Most medical doctors don't recognize chiropractic as a valid form of treatment for health problems. They consider it to be "alternative medicine" like accupuncture, herbalists and homeopathy. Many consider alternative medicine to be nothing more than quackery. I say how pretentious can you be? Such blatant displays of snobbery serve no one, except maybe the medical doctor hoping not to lose patients to other forms of treatment.
I'm willing to give alternative medicine a chance. Standard treatments for scoliosis are back braces and surgery (where they fuse pieces of your vertebrae together). I don't know about you, but these seem very backwards to me. Why not see if manual manipulation has any effect? I'm going to try the chiropractic treatments and see how my neck feels afterwards and post my results here.
5 comments:
Good luck!
I know how you feel though. When I was waitressing for all of those years, the left side of my neck, and that muscle behind your shoulder blade, would always kill and usually give me headaches. That's the arm I used to carry those heavy trays.
It still bugs me a little and I haven't waitressed for at least four or five years.
I've never been to a chiropractor, mostly for monetary reasons, but OMG I love me a good massage therapist.
My mom suffered something similar. When she first got to the country, she worked in a fish processing factory. She scaled fish 8 hours a day and the constant motion (imagine peeling carrots... vigorously) injured her shoulder. She hasn't been there in decades but it still bothers her.
Your health insurance doesn't cover chiropractor visits?
You make a lot of assumptions about doctors. In any field, there are good and bad examples. Hopefully, you found a good one. If not, you will find that out also. My opinion, that's a lot of appointments for your problem. I'd pay attention. I would think some rehab type exercises would be the way to go, rather than the 'realignment' this will put you through.
Dr.J
Of course I make a lot of assumptions, everyone does. We all go through life operating under a set of assumptions acquired from our life experiences. My personal experience has been that the majority of medical doctors are more focused on the symptoms and not the cause.
I will definitely be paying attention. If I see no improvements, or a worsening of my condition, then I will stop treatment.
Usually I try to treat the symptoms and the cause. With many medical conditions,unfortunately, the 'cause' cannot be treated, so all that is available is symptomatic treatment. I'm lucky, as a surgeon, I don't know anything, but can do a lot! :-)
I hope you do well and are ready for further punishment soon! Annoying, or irritating the oyster is a good thing! Keep it up!
Dr.J
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