The Road to Recovery

I've been feeling pretty sore lately...especially my shoulder.  It all started about a month ago when my elbow and shoulder became uncharacteristically weak and strained.  Since then my back and neck have tightened up as well.  Since I am a right-handed conductor, color guard coach and professional paper cutter, my right shoulder is rather important.  After feeling extremely fatigued after only two minutes of conducting at recent rehearsals and concerts, I decided it was time to see the professionals.

Today was my first chiropractic adjustment--the first step on a steady road to recovery!  I had never been to a chiropractor before having the exam and x-rays last week, but I must say the whole thing has been very comfortable and reassuring.  Below are two x-rays (not mine, though the first is almost identical to what I saw of my own skeleton).  The first shows what my neck looks like now--notice how there is no curvature at all.  That is bad.  The second x-ray shows proper curvature (the hoped-for end result of my treatment).  No wonder I get headaches for no apparent reason.



My treatment will consist of some crazy electrical pulse therapy (please forgive my lack of actual terminology...she did explain it all to me, but I can't remember everything right now).  Today I had about 20 minutes of this stuff--little pulses of electricity causing my muscles to tighten and relax quickly.  It basically felt like 3 or 4 gnomes were tap dancing on my neck/upper back.  The pulses on my shoulder, however, felt slightly less pleasant.  I would describe it more like a baby shark using my shoulder as a teething ring.  It wasn't painful, just a bit strange.

My doctor will also give me the appropriate adjustments--which were awesome!  She will also teach me some stretches to help prevent this from getting worse and to help me strengthen the muscles I need for conducting, coaching and cutting that paper.  It sounds like I might actually do some rehab type stuff for whatever happened to my shoulder.  In the mean time I can keep having Ben do all the heavy lifting around here.

I hope all your Christmas plans are going well.  I finished my shopping only moments ago!