Today was my 3rd visit to the chiropractor. My back is feeling substantially better!!!!! The doctor even said how amazed he was at my improvement after just 2 adjustments. My pain is now down to a 2. I still had a couple muscle spasms this morning, but thankfully I felt almost normal and rather comfortable the rest of the day.
At my visit today, my pain was finally down enough so that I could start electrical muscle stimulation treatments on my lower back. I felt great after the 3rd adjustment, but after the muscle stim I felt MIGH-TY FINE!!!!! Haha! I am still heeding the doctor's advice and not taking on physical activity for the rest of the week - the good news is I can start my 1/2 marathon training on Sunday!!! Wooooo hoooooo!
The doctor also said that I SHOULD NOT do the boot camp class at my gym anymore. =( This sucks and I will miss the class, but honestly it does all make sense...I didn't start having these recurring back issues until I started doing the class. He explained that when using free weights in front of me, it puts a lot of extra weight and strain on my lower back - which is already weakened from a bulging disc, which I've known about for about 10 years now. I wish I was better at explaining everything he said, but I forgot most of it already because I have such a fabulous short term memory. All I know is we spend most of the class bent over at a 45-degree angle, and I can see how that is straining my back. So, I must stick mostly to weight lifting machines from this point forward.
During my 2nd visit yesterday, the doctor went over things in a lot more detail. My X-ray shows the middle of my spine is curving ever so slightly to the left, which explains why the left side of my lower back has been causing me the most pain. My left shoulder and left hip area also slightly higher than the right. And finally, the top vertebrae of my neck are rather misaligned - your neck is supposed to swoop back, and mine is starting to push forward. For me, this is likely due to typing on a laptop all day at work and sleeping on my stomach, which I sadly learned is very, very bad for your spine! So I have to become a back or side sleeper now. All my treatments and adjustments are going to correct these issues, and thankfully with my insurance it's not going to cost me an arm and a leg like I feared. Correcting my neck should also help the headaches I get.
I'm so excited to move forward with the treatments and my marathon training! Thank goodness this happened now, rather than 6 weeks into the training!
awww and you are the boot camp queen I know you will miss it. I was gonna mention I thought that might be the issue but figured I better be quiet ; ) lol Glad you are feeling better. It is hard to give up things that we like to do to feel better but I know you will persevere...you always do!
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