Thursday, March 31, 2011

First Trip to the Chiropractor

First off, this is my 300th post. Woo hoo!

As I've mentioned before, apparently my spine is curved and my pelvis is crooked, which is causing lower back pain on my right side. My GP recommended I go see Dr. Kane at Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic, in hopes that readjustment will solve that problem.

From here

Yesterday was my first appointment, and, as I've never been to the chiropractor before, I was really nervous. Luckily, it turns out that I had no reason to be. Dr. Kane and Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic are totally awesome!

The whole atmosphere of the office (located behind one of my favorite Lake Taco restaurants, Sprouts) was welcoming and calming, from the relaxing music to the two year old son of Dr. Kane running around to the fact that they have an office dog. Everyone was super friendly and my nervousness quickly dissipated.

Dr. Kane did a cursory examination and came to the same conclusion as Dr. Brooks. My pelvis is crooked, so my sacroiliac joint is not moving correctly, causing irritation in my sacroiliac ligaments.

Since I'm young and otherwise pretty healthy, Dr. Kane told me that this would hopefully be a pretty easy problem to fix, just a few of adjustments, spaced a week apart, with some "homework" for me to do between visits.

I agreed that this sounded like a reasonable course of action, and so Dr. Kane's assistant (who is also his wife- gotta love family businesses) prepared me for my first adjustment.

The nerves started creeping back in at this point, but they did an awesome job explaining what was going on/what was going to happen. First they prepped my back using some machine to do electrical stimulation and heating pads to make the area relaxed. It was a relaxing 15 or 20 minutes of me laying there while tiny shocks ran across my lower back...kind of like a prickly massage. Then it was time for my real adjustment.

I'm not even going to try to describe that part, as I can't really convey what exactly was going on. Basically, Dr. Kane twisted and contorted my hips, back and neck to try to get them in proper alignment. It didn't hurt at all (which I had worried about), and in fact, it made my neck feel a lot better (I didn't even realize how much tension I'd been holding in my neck!). I was surprised by how short the whole procedure was.

Dr. Kane warned me that I might feel kind of sore in the next couple of days, but hopefully I'd start feeling more "even" and "balanced" after that. I also got my "homework" sheet, which is just a bunch of pretty easy, lower back-focused yoga moves, like cat-cow, bridge, twists, etc.

I go back next week to check my alignment and see if I need any more adjustments.

All in all, it was an excellent first ever trip to the chiropractor. If you are in the Tahoe area, I seriously recommend Dr. Kane at Tahoe Chiropractic Clinic. He was great, and everyone there made my first experience at the chiropractor a great one.

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