Hello and welcome back to the wonderful but hurting Dogpound. Yes, despite all of the exercise and eating right… well… mostly right… I had to give up and go to a chiropractor. My sciatic nerve has been acting up something terrible of late… especially in the car. Not sure why the car is such an issue since I can sit at my computer at work or at the table at home with minor issues, but drive for 30 minutes and I get this pain crawling across by buttocks and down the right side of my leg. I had a serious issue many years ago and went through therapy to get it under control. So normally, when I get a flare-up I use my stretching exercise and my tens unit [electric muscle stimulator]to push my sciatic nerve back to a more stable position; however, in this case it would not surrender and was just getting worse, actually spreading up into my right shoulder. I finally gave up and went to a chiropractor.
As I said it has been a longtime since I have been to a bone cruncher, but I remember the old back cracker and the ever feared neck breaker. I don’t mind the attempt to shove my back through the bench but the neck crack scares me to death. When the chiropractor cradles my head with both hands in preparation of twisting my neck, I cannot help having flashbacks to movies where the good guy comes up behind the bad guy and with a swift twist of the head dispatches the person with nary a look back as the body crumbles to the ground. She tells me to “Just relax”. Right!? Really?! You have to be kidding!
Anyway… good news… my head is still attached. Yeah me! However, they have added a new device to their bag of tricks. They call it the “pill” but I call it the torture rack. They place a hard foam wedge under the middle of your back: It is about 4 inches tall and about 2 inches wide, so you wind up with your back arched supported only by your shoulders and your heels. Sound uncomfortable? You betchya! They started me off at three minutes and I never thought it would end. Then they tell me that we will do this till I am up to 20 minutes. Really! I am so stiff after each session. It is supposed to help move my spine back into location, but for the first 30 minutes afterwards, I am walking like an old man. I just pray they know what they are doing. Some good news though. I have showed some improvement despite the head cracking and back bending. LOL
That is all I can do for now. Need to get up and do some stretching exercises. As always be good, do good, play safe, and remember to take care of your back so it will take care of you.
JR
