Well, I am deformed. Yep. Got my xrays back. I have absolutely NO curvature in my neck!! A normal neck would have a slight bend/curve toward the back of the head. Mine does not; it's straight. It's no WONDER I've been having problems. Luckily, the rest of the xrays of my head, neck, and chest showed a healthy me -no weird masses anywhere and no other abnormalities. The top vertebrae right where my shoulders start/neck ends is all askew as well...and that explains why my shoulders are always super tight. It was weird looking at the xrays and then comparing them to "normal" ones...I completely saw what was wrong and the parts that were different were the EXACT spots I feel the tightness/pain radiating from. Wooo hooo!! Luckily as well, the bones are in great shape, the discs are as well and there is absolutely no signs of arthritis. Now, if he saw an xray of my ankle, he'd see some arthritis! haha. I have no idea what's caused this...could be a combo of many, many things and he suspects it's been a problem for some time that has just never been caught "on film", just adjusted here and there and treated in other ways. Also, he confirmed what I had been suspecting all along: my tmj/jaw problems I've been treated for by my dentist has a direct relationship with my neck/shoulder problems. In fact, the "straightness" of my neck exacerbates the jaw joint stuff and vice versa. I am a mess. :-)
So he gave me some treatment options and I consented to the most aggressive one: 1/2hr to 1 hr deep tissue massage, then a 5mn ultrasound on the neck/shoulder area, then adjustments in the three spots 3x a week for about 4 weeks with a gradual tapering down of appointments along with adding strengthening exercises later on for that area. He gave me one simple exercise to do, which is simply to pull my chin into my neck for a bit. HOLY COW -that stretches the hell out of my jaw muscles, temple/head muscles, side neck muscles, back neck muscles, mid-back muscles, and even the muscles near my collar bone. Wow. So, I'm looking forward to feeling better and not battling this constant headache/neckache/backache all the time. I'm very glad I chose this chiropractor. He's young (well, my age -but hey, I'm young!!!), arrogant (oops, I mean confident!!!), and completely believes in the incorporation of massage with chiropractic care. That works for me.
I'm very much looking forward to a quiet evening at home tonight and a quiet, slow weekend. My week next week is packed full. I have a full day of meetings all over the cooperative on Monday, on Tuesday I have the same, and Wednesday a training all day long with a state specialist in learning disabilities. Bleh. I have to fit in chiropractor and massage appointments in those three days plus drive down to St. Paul for a new leaders training at MASE (see previous posts) on Thursday and then on Friday a director's forum at the department (MDE) in St. Paul as well. Yuck. An entire week out of the office essentially. That usually means an entire week of catchup not to mention a couple weekends of catchup as well. Oh well. There ain't no rest for the wicked!!!!
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