Thursday, September 20, 2012

Pain, meet chiropractor

I have a problem.
I love cheap flip flops.

Unfortunately, cheap flip flops do not love my feet, and in turn my hips and lower back. This creates a reoccurring problem for my body.
Way back in August, my fun with flip flops ended with pain and muscle spasms going down my right leg. This happens maybe several times a year and takes a couple days to resolve. Usually, a sign for me to start wearing my "good" shoes which seems to correct the problem that i think has to do with body alignment. Work was rough, and doing daily stuff was hard too. After about a week, the pain went away from the right side. Too bad for me, the pain and muscle problems shifted to my left side. And stayed. It got so bad that I was laying on the floor one night, crying because it hurt so much to move. Poor Andy, he had to listen to me through all of this. He was so patient.
Heat helped. And I took bunches of Tylenol, ibuprofen and naproxen. I wore my shoes with killer arch support.
Still, things did not get better.
Finally, with Andy's suggestion, I made an appointment with a chiropractor.
Amazing.
Apparently, my pelvis had shifted enough that my right leg was shorter than my left leg. My back got adjusted and I was put on a table with rollers to massage my back and hooked up to muscle stim.
I left that treatment feeling a little better, but discouraged that it wasn't an easy fix. I came back for a second treatment, and then a third.
I could tell with the last one, that my back was not as sore and that the doctor adjusted in a lower area than before=improvement and healing.
I'm no longer popping pills throughout the day.
I can walk without a limp :-) and do daily stuff with no problems.
Why did I wait so long to go?
I still hurt occasionally, but it is thousands of times better than it had been. I'm hoping that after my next visit I will get the okay to start running again.

I threw away all my flip flops.

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