The difference of a day. Well, make that two. Thursday, I suggested chiropractic care should be available to every senior except when we can see it is not a fit. Tonight, I went online, reading the criticism of chiropractic.
And, I am now persuaded chiropractic is not as beneficial as what I hoped. Oh, I still wonder if making it available to seniors might be a good idea. If chiropractic does work -- if it can separate the discs so nerves are not pinched, and thus stop the pain -- it is a good idea, yet.
I think I should like to tell of my experience with chiropractic. I answered a newspaper ad on peripheral neuropathy. When I got in there, they said I didn't qualify for that program as I did not have peripheral neuropathy --- but that I could benefit from regular chiropractic treatment. The doctor showed me before-and-after x-rays of a patient, the first x-ray showing a collapsed disc and the second showing vertebrae where the spacing would not pinch the nerves.
He suggested he had tried to get medical doctors to come look at the difference. What they were saying doesn't happen, does. That was the thought. Proper spacing between vertebrae can be restored.
Now, I'm a man with a bad back. I don't want it fused so I can no longer run. I understood that is where I would end up if I went to a spine clinic. So, by holding before me a vision that all would be okay without surgery, I -- get this -- signed a contract requiring me to pay $2700 within a year.
And, the adjustments began.
Most of them involved me laying on my side, the top leg bent and he would come down with sudden force on that leg and supposedly force spine parts to move, to create a gap between the vertebrae. A couple things soon began to bother me. First, I couldn't see how the adjustment was targeting my back. How are we adjusting the back when the force is being applied in another location? Second, supposing my back was being adjusted, how come I didn't feel any pain there? If you are moving the disc or vertebrae or whatever, shouldn't moving it through the tendons or muscle or whatever extract some pain? I'd feel pain in the top inside of my leg, because that is where the force was being applied, but my back was unaffected, no pain being created or felt.
I last saw the chiropractor Wednesday. He has left on vacation and my next appointment isn't until Jan. 8. He had previously told me he is successful with 90 percent of his patients and indicated the other 10 percent is littered with those who don't do their part by icing their backs and such. Despite that I told him I was not able to function any better after five weeks, he assured me I would be made better, though it would take six months to a year.
I thanked him profusely. I was desperate to believe -- and still am. When you have a serious problem, and someone is saying they can make it okay, you are quick to believe.
Pulling up the critical reviews I have tonight has prompted me to reconsider chiropractic. Just the same, I still have hope it can do some good. I might yet go back, come Jan. 8. Although I cannot understand how applying force in a different area affected the back, perhaps it did. And, perhaps the vertebrae can be moved without pain or even a feeling that something has been moved.
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