Backs and Necks

Back in August I threw my back out petting our new cat as I was walking into the house from the garage. After almost 3 weeks of constant pain, I knew I had really done it. My visiting teachers came over one day and one of them asked me how my back was doing. Not good, as she could plainly see. Her husband is a chiropractor and she offered his services to me.

That night I talked with him over the phone and he said that my injury sounded to severe for him to feel comfortable "adjusting" me at his house and he asked me to come into his office for x-rays and a full work up. I was hesitant, mostly because of money, but also because I had never been to a chiropractor before, but had seen my grandparents get adjustments when I was a kid and they looked painful and dangerous (cracking someone's neck off to the side quickly always freaked me out). After expressing my fears, Dr. Armstrong quickly offered all of his services to me for free and to "just come in tomorrow".

I headed there the next morning where he quickly got to work assessing how bad my injury was.

He checked my reflexes on my knees, twice, with no response. Bearing down as if I was in labor practically put me into tears. Lifting my legs while sitting proved incredibly difficult and painful. Without x-rays he concluded that I had a pinched nerve and slipped disc in my back that could go further out at any time rendering me unable to walk or move. He's been in the business for so long that he knew without x-rays what he was dealing with and how to treat it.

So I was to come in twice a week for adjustments, stay off my feet (no standing for longer than 10 minutes at a time), no sitting for extended periods of time (no longer than 20 minutes at a time), ice my back every other hour for 15 minutes at a time, take 6000 mg of vitamin c a day, no bending, and no lifting anything over 10 lbs. So, I was basically on bed rest.

This table quickly became my best friend

The church brought dinners, the family "stepped up" and I was a good patient and followed doctors orders (for the most part).

About a month into treatment and bed rest, while at church, my back started to spasm really bad and my visiting teacher quickly whisked me away to her house for her husband to adjust me immediately. My disc decided to try to go out again (which he had gotten back in) because I decided that since I was feeling better that I could push myself more and attend church the entire time...which was WAY too much sitting. While at his house he instructed me to go home and lay down and ice my back while laying on my back. I told him I had a hard time doing that because laying on my back I get instant headaches that quickly turn into migraines. Again, Dr. Armstrong told me to come into the office the next day for x-rays because getting headaches like that isn't normal.

He took my x-rays, adjusted my back again and told me to go home and lay down and do nothing. This time, I did as I was told.

A couple days later I went back to review my x-rays with Dr. Armstrong. I really didn't thing it was going to be too bad. I was wrong. Opening the conversation he told me he knew I had been in a car accident. "Huh?" I asked.

"Well you have injuries that show you sustained severe trauma to your neck that are causing the pain you mentioned yesterday." he told me while pointing to the films.

"I've never been a car accident." I told him confused.

"Well...SOMETHING happened because you broke your neck in two places, have a backward curve in your neck, have fusing vertebrae and your vertebrae are rotated 90 degrees out to the right side. You also have what's called Degenerative Nerve and Disc Disease which causes your discs to slip easily and your nerves to get pinched as a result. There is also a point at the base of your 5th vertebrae in your neck where when you broke it you could have been killed instantly as it is only maybe a millimeter or two above a the ligament that runs between that and your collar bone. If your break was off just a hair, you would have severed that ligament and your head would have literally fallen forward or backward, resulting in your head "falling off" and you would have died."

um.....WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????

The curve of my neck is supposed to go toward the front of my body, not the back, my 4th and 5th vertebrae aren't supposed to have those "teardrops" at the tips of them and those "teardrops" aren't supposed to be touching. (The "teardrops" are the broken neck spots...that I never knew I had!)

There is a dark white spot kinda parallel to my back molars in the center of this film that are supposed to line up with the bone that comes out of my skull. That's where the rotation is.

All of this he swore was a result of a horrible car accident.

But I've never been in one. EVER.

He let me take the films home to show Tim after starting work on my neck and adjusting my back. He told me, again, to go home and do nothing and that my pain would be worse before it got better, but that he is confident that he can reverse it all! (except for the bones that broke).

So, I have had regular weekly appointments with Dr. Armstrong to get me all fixed. Unfortunately I will always have the nerve and disc disease. (which we have discovered is also in my back - he ended up doing x-rays for me as I was worried that I had hidden problems in my back I had no idea about like my neck - and I turned out to be right with the disease as well as scoliosis, fuzing vertebrae and a protruding sacrum.)

I am feeling much better than I was, though I have recently had another "slip" of the disc in my back that went out before. I'm grateful to be alive, and especially grateful for the good doctor and his willingness to serve me to get me better.