A Cold and the Chiropractor

I’ve been sick for the past couple of days, although I felt it coming on all week. Whenever my husband gets sick, I get sick. It happens every time, even though I’m healthy and I believe my immune system is strong. I just can’t avoid the germs that are in the house.

So I haven’t been exercising much. A little walking is about it. I actually stopped running the day after I went to the chiropractor for my first adjustment. She looked at the MRI report for my knees from a couple years ago and told me that I’m just going to cause further damage if I keep running. She did say that I should at least do it less often, like do other forms of exercise too. So I’m still going to run races, because those are only a few times a year. I’ll work on becoming a yoga master the rest of the time 🙂

This is actually my first time ever seeing a chiropractor. My massage therapist recommended it, because of my complaints of hip pain. She recommended a wonderful chiropractor who uses an activator (a handheld device) to adjust the alignment of the body, which appears to be more accurate than a hands-on approach, because the activator is able to more easily target the exact area of the body skeleton that needs to be adjusted.

I’ve had two adjustments so far. I was really sore and had a little pain following the first adjustment, and it was suggested to me to only walk and do light stretching while I’m sore. Because the weather is really cold, I haven’t been walking much. I can’t tell yet if I have any pain from the second adjustment, which was just yesterday. I’ll have to wait and see, because it’s early in the morning and my body hasn’t woken up yet. Pain and discomfort is normal, I was told, because the muscles and tendons are adjusting to the changes in the body skeleton. Once they adjust, the pain will be gone. Which, it does seem to go away after a couple of days, but I’m getting adjusted twice a week right now, so I’m in pain almost all the time.

Seeing the chiropractor is a process that involves a series of adjustments in order to correct the alignment of the body, and then probably future adjustments to continue to keep my body aligned, as our bodies can get out of alignment from daily living. An example of this, I believe, is crossing the legs. I believe repeatedly doing this can change the skeleton. So I’m trying to keep my body in positions that are natural for it, like sitting with both feet on the floor and my legs straight. That’s just one example.

I actually had some x-rays done that the chiropractor recommended – for my neck, lower-back, and pelvis. It turns out that my neck is crooked in a way that was likely caused by whiplash, probably when I was hit by a car. I didn’t know I had whiplash then, because I became unconscious just before I was hit, which explains my neck pain and possibly why I get so many knots in my shoulder muscles. Also, my spine is not straight, my pelvis and hips are not even, my femurs and tibias don’t line up correctly, etc. So I’m in need of a lot of adjustments to correct my alignment.

I’m looking forward to getting aligned. It is a part of my health journey.

Have a great weekend!