Bone Cracking

I saw a chiropractor yesterday... after avoiding chiro for years at my husband’s dismay. I guess I finally decided that I had to see someone about my back and I guess I figured that seeing my family doctor would possibly result in many more appointments with him and other specialists before the actual problem would be diagnosed....and I really wasn’t looking to be prescribed a ton of painkillers just to mask the problem until the problem was in fact correctly diagnosed. Having never been to see a chiropractor nor a GP for any of my back’s ailments before, I can’t say that one turned out to be better than the other. I can only say that seeing this chiropractor has not only helped me in my day to day struggle through what I hope is an irregular though severely felt back trauma (for me, anyway), but has helped me to reconsider my body’s immortality and the naturally found preventative measures that we all can partake in to reduce such out of the norm and debilitating physical results of our day to day stresses.

Upon my first experience with the ‘bone cracker’, my husband (a long-time pro-chiro activist) thought he was being clever by going into the room with me, seating me casually off to the side and then laying down on the bench while the chiropractor worked on him first and in front of me before I was really spoken to personally, to give me an idea of what to expect. I could have killed him in that moment, as only seconds before the doctor walked in he had nodded yes to my whispered question, “Did you tell everyone that I’ve been afraid to go to a chiropractor for years?” He had indeed let his doctor know beforehand that I was hesitant to see chiro because of my own pre-conceived notions of chiro in general. So naturally I felt even more unsure of the whole thing, knowing that the dreaded bone-cracker as well as his staff now knew of my previous aversion to the whole thing...almost like they all were in on a conspiracy to convince me through involuntary spinal manipulation that my notions were unjustified (something I have to say, does not usually assist in one being as relaxed as one should be during any chiropractic endeavour, let alone the first!). Anyway, that being said, I watched in hidden horror as my husband, Jim, lay complacent while his doctor of the cracking of his bones bent him into positions that I, as his wife, could never have convinced him to try, and while the doctor pretty much JUMPED down onto my husband’s relaxed form releasing cracking noises from everywhere, I sat mortified at what I was witnessing. I’m a good actor though and so my mortification at what was surely coming my way was subdued to the point of casual observance.

Then as suddenly as the horror show had begun, Jim had left the room and had left me to my demise as the doctor of the death of my bones began to speak to me at length about my current back issue and my general well-being...which I expected, as I knew enough to know that even chiropractors who are not ‘real doctors’, and who have some sort of ‘spiritual’ angle on the weak minded still can sense a patient’s hesitance...and react accordingly. That and the one question on my ‘information sheet’ I had filled out that asked about my job satisfaction took precedence over my physical pain.

I answered his calmly asked questions truthfully. And then I was putty in his hands. After laying down and getting up and stretching this way and that way, and crossing my arms while I was laying on my side with one leg straight and one leg curled up while he jumped on me and elicited all kinds of cracks and exhalations from my body, and again on the other side and my telling him what I thought my problem was based on research (herniated disc), he told me that he didn’t think it was that at all....he felt it was something else entirely. He’s pretty sure it is a swollen sacroiliad joint (SI joint) that I’m suffering from. It has happened periodically through the last few years, and will undoubtedly continue to happen for the rest of my life when I`m not catering to it and when I ignore my body`s red flags, (something I know I tend to do to my own regret). However, there are preventative measures I can take. Hence the next calming conversation I had with him, in which we talked about yoga and the like. I explained that I used to ‘do yoga’ years ago, but haven’t done a thing like that in years now. He asked for my instructor’s name and company and I laughed and said I used to do it on my own, in quiet, alone time, while meditating...and he replied that I was ahead of the game for doing so...that I already knew the basics of yoga and the core reasoning behind my willingness to do yoga based on that, and that I probably didn’t need him to explain any more about yoga, lol. How stupid I felt at that moment, I can`t convey here in words.

The realization that I was paying someone to point blank tell me something that I already knew was excruciating and eye-opening at the same time. That was two days ago. This morning, I was happily anticipating my second visit to him, and I could barely wait until my name was called from the waiting room. I lay down on the bench once again, eagerly but without any pre-existing notions this time and he again treated my body like it was a puddle of mud there for his moulding, and again, it felt great.

I`m glad I saw him for this issue, is the bottom line. And I`m happy for the grounding, spiritual feeling I left his office with once again after weeks of feeling like I was awash in a sea of pain, uncontrollable by any extent of my own doing. Our own bodies are carriages for our spirits. I have always believed that, but actually having your physical self being told it, is a reminder that it is indeed a truth. My chiropractor told me that a lot of people feel that no one should ever be in pain, and that he believes that is the wrong way to think about it. He said that no one can live completely pain free. Most people feel pain, intermittently throughout their lives, but if you treat your body well, and expect to feel pain once in a while, when it comes to you, you can deal with it. And dealing with it means opening your eyes to many things....having your bones cracked, daily, weekly, monthly or once in a lifetime, accepting a prescribed drug regiment, treating your body like it is a temple (without the pre-programmed fear that you are living pretentiously), changing your physical or your spiritual life’s outlook, or all of the above.

So all in all, take care of yourself...however that may be.