Re: Went to a chiropractor

[Guest guest]

Connie said:

>Went to a chiro on tuesday.

>He took some x-rays, went back in to the office today.

>Guess what. Things aren't exactly where everything is suppose to be.

But chiropractors always says that. I admit to being prejudiced against

chiropractors, but my one experience with one was a disaster. Their job is to

" find " that you're out of alignment and have you come back weekly for a year or

forever, each time taking your money. I do know people who swear by them, but

my experience was horrible and left me permanently injured.

>The notorious L5 at the bottom of the low back. Its not in

>its correct position, and not even allowing movement.

>Actually its leaning one way, and the 4-5 discs above it are leaning

>in the opposite direction. So, since the L5 wasn't moving at all

>the other guys were starting to move to compensate for it.

You may have scoliosis, which as far as I know, can't be cured by maniplation

(if anyone knows different, please tell me because I'd love to have my scoliosis

fixed).

>Same things is going on with my neck area, except the tilts in the

>c's were worse. Then I'm not sure if it was c8, or the t1

>was tilted back the other way.

>Its like all the C's and L's are all not in the right position.

This could happen because of weak back muscles, but just manipulating the bones

won't fix it.

>I got e-stim both yesturday and today. Today he did some

>manipulations. Not really sure if it helped or not.

>Still in a lot of pain, stopped the muscle relaxors a couple days

>ago. So, I was heating the area, the chiro said its areas of

>inflamation, so icings better.

>I really don't feel the muscle spasming, but kind of pain

>in the 2 areas now, since I'm icing all the time. It gets numb and

>doesn't hurt, but then when they start to thaw out, they start

>to hurt again.

>The chiro mentioned that the L5, makes the TFL tensor facia lata

>(sp?) get tight which makes the itband tight.

This could be.

>So, all that SI joint stuff, all makes sense, why treatment wasn't

>really doing much with PT. I mean thing were getting a hair

>better, but my back kept getting worse.

>So, I'm suppose to be going 2x a week for 4 weeks. He thinks

>4 weeks should get me going, and I should be feeling a lot

>better in 2 weeks.

>I'm, allowed to do non-weight bearing exercise, water classes.

>So, at least my gym offers them.

My old PT had me doing this to strengthen my back: get one of those gym balls --

36 " . They cost about $30. Lie on it face down, but hold your head up. Move

your arms in a swimming motion, keeping them close to the body. No need to move

your head side to side at first. Do 20 then rest, then another 20, rest,

another 20. When you can handle it, in the same position, arms extended out to

the sides, raise them, at first w/o weights, then with small weights & work up.

You can also do Theraband back-building exercises, where you use a yellow or red

Theraband. Either secure it to something or tie a knot in it & close a door on

it, with the knot on the other side of the door (they way they showed me, you

put the knot on the other side of the hinge edge of the door), at shoulder

height, and, keeping your arms at shoulder height, pull back on both " tails " of

the Theraband at the same time. This does the same thing as raising weights

while lying on the ball. My PT had me doing it also raising the Theraband over

my head, and pulling on it from straight out front, down and back. To

strengthen the lower back, lie on the floor and try to lift your upper body,

bending at the waist.

Ann

>I'll keep you all posted.

>Connie

[Guest guest]

> There are dentists that find a lot of cavities and gum disease that aren't

there as well. I found one >in Seattle that convinced me that I needed major

work on my teeth to the tune of $3000+. Lucky >for me I knew an honest dentist

that discovered I only needed 4 fillings instead of 8 fillings, an >occlusal

adjustment, some gum treatment that sounded really scary, and all the other

stuff.

You wanta hear a dental scam story? In the early '50s my cousins' family

moved to Bellingham or Sultan or someplace up there north of Seattle (same

dentist????) and their neighbor happened to be a dentist. He convinced the

parents to let him drill EVERY TOOTH in their 3 children and fill them " to

prevent future cavities " . I'm sure it wasn't cheap, and now of course all my

cousins' fillings are falling out, or have shrunk and allowed decay underneath.

Not to mention this must have been extremely traumatic for them, they being

children.

Then there's the braces scam. I was prepared for this when my kid's dentist

told me he needed braces. His teeth were nice and straight and he had a space

between the two upper fronts that could have been fixed by cutting the tough gum

membrane between the two. I refused. My kid felt deprived, since all his

friends were wearing braces. His teeth remained in perfect alignment, and the

gap closed up on its own when his second molars came in.

Ann

[Guest guest]

I said:

> To strengthen the lower back, lie on the floor and try to lift your upper

body, bending at the waist.

I should have said: " To strengthen the lower back, lie face-down on the floor

and try to lift your upper body, bending at the waist. "

Ann

[Guest guest]

In my case, the " doctor " injured me in two ways. I was lying on my back, and he

was testing me for range of motion of my head. He said my range of motion was

limited (it was), and then, without warning, he jerked my head to one side &

then the other. It was a year before I could bend my head back to look up and I

still have problems if I bend it back or twist it to the side for too long. (I

did end up with better range of motion, but the price wasn't worth it.)

And the other thing was I had hurt my thoracic spine between the shoulder

blades. The action that hurt it was just that I was bending down, forward, and

to the right to pick someone up at about hip level. It suddenly cracked, and

that was very painful, and the pain didn't go away. I knew I needed PT, but

HMO's had taken over and I knew it would take weeks to get one. At that time my

insurance allowed you to go to a chiro w/o a referral (WHY?????), so in

desperation I went to one I found on their list. Didn't know anything about

him, and didn't know anyone who was seeing one they could recommend. First

thing, he puts me on a roller table. The roller is mechanized so that it rolls

up your spine (you're lying on your back). All that did was make the problem

worse. So he didn't have me do the roller any more. Then one day he was

" manipulating " my spine. I have to confess that he was being pretty gentle, so

can't blame it on his being rough. He put one hand on one side of the injured

area and the other hand on the other side (I was lying face down) and moved one

hand forward and the other back, rotating the vertebra. WRONG!!!! It HURT!. I

said " Wow, that hurt! " He said " Well, it's not supposed to. " I said " Well, it

did, and it still hurts " . He said my time was up, he had another patient. I

said I didn't want to leave until it hurt less. He seemed exasperated and said

well, I could lie down on one of the examining tables. These tables are hard

and he didn't furnish a pillow. And the room was cold. After about an hour & a

half, during which time my back hurt more & more, a Valley Girl type came in &

said they needed the room. I said I was waiting for the " doctor " . She said he

had left. Yes, indeedy, he had left. And wasn't coming back. Needless to say,

I never went back. I figured it was hopeless to sue. I've had problems with my

back ever since, and that was 10 years ago.

Ann

Re: Went to a chiropractor

Thank You Ann, You proved my point. They typically shoot you with x-rays,

tell you your a mess and need to see them regularly for " maintainance " even if

you begin to feel better. If they really cared about patients they would teach

them how to " maintain " themselves if it were actually needed. Your PT will teach

you exercises and the doc will teach your significant other how to care for you

if you need care.

My brutally honest Dentist may have shed some light on the cause of this. He

said that dentists like the one I found in Seattle are often in large cities.

Lots of dentists and high property values in large cities - they have a hard

time making it. So if they find the slightest hint of any problem they go overly

aggressive to milk you for everything you got. I think this is the problem with

Chiropractic care. The requirements to get into Chiropractic school are:

" there is a “C” minimum for required Biology, Chemistry, and Physics courses "

and that is just for starters. They require a 2.5 GPA overall. So you can get

someone who barely passes the core classes and does just Ok in Drama 101

discusing alternative endings to the 3 little pigs and basic stage lighting. And

they are the ones shooting you with radiation and jumping on your back.

Just like Dentists there are a few that are honest as well. They don't all

just squeek by and some are making an honest living. I have heard very few

successful stories. If he asks you to come back for " maintainance " that would be

your first clue something is wrong.