- Where can I get a new one of these?
So, I’ve told you all — more often than you wanted to hear, I’m willing to bet — about my chronic back issues, right?
I’ve taken a couple of steps to help myself along, just so you know. I don’t just sit around complaining.
Last week — Monday, to be precise — I went to see a “chiropractor” for my back pain.
He didn’t have an X-Ray machine in his office, however, so along with the money he charged for sitting around talking to me and making me stand barefoot on a glorified flatbed scanner to show me my arches are collapsing under my bulk (*gasp!* really?! no kidding?!), he wanted to “send me” to a place where I could get X-Rays taken and come back to his office while he sat about figuring out how many times he could ding my insurance before it was exhausted.
Seriously. That was my “chiropractor” appointment.
I did, however, learn a couple of things from him, whether he meant to tell me those things or not.
For one, it’s likely most greatly impacted by my weight. The key to easing this horrible pain is dropping weight. Oh, fantastic, another dark mystery of the universe solved.
Second, it’s likely a displaced disc/vertebra/joint in my lower back, which is something a couple of medical doctors have told me over the years. I can’t even remember when I first learned I had it, but I was told at that time — and later in other times when it came up — that this is an extremely common slippage for teenage boys. So I didn’t worry about it. (Still don’t.)
But the “chiropractor” — one of only two in my town on my provider’s list of chiropractors — doesn’t have an X-Ray machine, so he can’t do anything else until I pay for and bring him a set of X-Rays. (In his defense, he was willing to use X-Rays from any source within the last year. I haven’t had any spinal X-Rays taken in something like 10 years, though, and I don’t remember who or where those were taken.)
So, I’m out however much from my HSA account for the “appointment” and all I have to show for it is a bill. My beloved doesn’t want me to see any more “chiropractors” unless they have an in-office X-Ray machine. I don’t know that I’ll find one, but hey, there’s a bar set now, right?
No, it wasn't this one.
Well, with that disaster under my belt, we bit the bullet last night and went computer chair shopping. My computer chair, if you followed my other, brief-lived blog on darcknyt.com, sucks rotten donkey balls, not to put too fine a point on it. I need a new one. I’ve needed a new one for about — oh, I don’t know — ten years, say? So last night I finally got the chance to pick one. Of course, they didn’t have it in stock. It has to be shipped to me, and I won’t have it until Tuesday. Huzzah.
If it offers me the relief I hope it will, I’m going to ask my boss if I can order one at work. He’s pretty generous but even if he doesn’t approve the request, I can order it myself and pay for it personally. It’s just something I’ll have to bring home when/if I ever leave the company. I don’t anticipate that being a problem though.
So, keep your fingers crossed, and say a prayer if you’re the praying type. I’m cautiously optimistic this will help (the lumbar support felt really nice and the pain relief I got sitting in the chair was immediate and fairly profound).
I got a new keyboard too. I’m a filthy addict! FILTHY! I’m so ashamed…
God bless, y’all.
-JDT-
What is chiropractor?
A chiropractor is someone who practices chiropractic therapy or medicine — specializing in the spine. Thanks for stopping by today.
I hope you can figure out how to fix that back of yours. I want a new chair at work. I have had problems with mine in the past but it probably isn’t as bad as the one you have right now.
Well, being in better physical condition you probably aren’t as sensitive to it as I am, Bob. If your chair is bothering you physically, though, you need to have that addresses ASAP. Talk to your boss about it and get a good one going.
Thanks for the well-wishes, too!
One word: “yoga”. Most ppl’s arches crap out and it’s a combination of weight, being upright and the shoes we wear. Mostly the last b/c we should be barefoot as often as possible. It forces our feet to actually work the way they are meant to.
Find a restorative or realignment yoga class. It’ll probably cost you about $100 give/take for an 8 or longer week session. In the meantime, go to YouTube and look for yoga vids that focus on building ab strength (weak abs make the back work too hard) or just core work in general. Most public libraries have yoga dvd’s too. And check your work station ergonomics again – there is more to it than just the chair.
Stay away from Chiropractors. Therapeutic massage or a physical therapist are better ways to go. The thing about chiros is that the manipulate (meaning force) bones back into align but weak muscles can’t hold them there and tight ones will just pull them back into misalignment. Yoga, massage and PT are slower but more effective in the long run.
Sorry that your back is off -kilter. Feel better soon.
Thank you so much Ann. What a joy to see you again! I don’t know if I can do yoga at my size, but anything’s worth a try at this point. Today and most of the weekend, the back’s been pretty good, so maybe some strides are being made in my weight after all.
Thanks again, and God bless; best to Rob and the girls!
Years ago, this guy I know had some back problems. Through a weird series of events, he fell ass backwards onto an aluminum trash can. The way his spine bent backwards across the can fixed his back issues. So he took to selling this idea as a service. It was going great and helping a lot of people until the chiropractor lobby group had him shut down. Damn chiropractor lobby. It’s a racket I tell you.
Now this guy, I think you know him too. His name is Homer something.
That was a good episode. I like the one where Bill Gates “bought him out” of his Internet business too.
LOL I was just thinking of that episode a couple of days ago.
A couple of years ago I managed to somehow pull some muscles in my neck. Damn thing hurt for a year. I went to a chiropractor, had one adjustment (she took no X-rays!) and my neck hasn’t hurt there since.
It’s a matter of getting the right chiropractor.
My wife has a similar story, and pulled muscles are certainly different from a spinal injury, but I thought he’d do more than sit and talk to me for the almost $300 dollars he’s going to charge me for the visit. (And welcome! Nice to see you here!) Finding the “right” chiropractor is also a function of one’s health insurance, so I don’t have that luxury right now.