Two weeks ago I assisted my mother, newly retired, with installing ceiling fixtures for her craftsman bungalow. The following day it felt as though an ice pick had made its way into my shoulder blade. After heroic attempts at massage by the boyfriend, several hundred milligrams of ibuprofen and constant applications of Salonpas patches, I gave up and called a chiropractor. My first visit, 6 am due to my failure to get day off, was odd and a let down. X-rays were taken, weird machine hooked up to monitor breathing and a quick meeting with doc took two full hours. Two hours with no treatment. I wandered in the next day for the continuation and this time it also took 2 hours and no adjustment. This time I was instructed to use a lumbar stretching chair, then had my head strapped into a neck stretcher (seen above) and sat for 15 min in it. When is the last time you sat unrestricted by a phone, book or tv? Well I survived and they moved me on to an electrofeedback machine that feels like a light muscle spasm.
Frustrated and still in pain I decided to go to Target and buy a new pillow, I am not getting great sleep due to my arms constantly falling asleep. I purchased a contour memory foam pillow that helps align my head comfortable to sleep on my back. Now I only wake up once a night with my arms falling asleep.
My third appointment at the chiro started out the same with stretching and electronic stimulus. Then they moved me to a table that slides to stretch the spine. Finally I received an adjustment on my lower back. But in all honesty I just don't think I can handle a month of 6 am visits to the office three times a week. For one: that's prohibitively expensive and second: my time is way to valuable. Sure sure, I know that it's worth the effort to live pain free but I'm way too stubborn for this malarkey.
Sitting on my lunch break yesterday, high on excedrin migraine for a blinding migraine, I made an appointment for my very first acupuncture. I'm looking forward to trying out a bit of eastern medicine. Who knows perhaps reiki is next!
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