Even Chiros get sore backs
We're in the business of health and wellbeing and unfortunately that includes back pain. Whether its neck pain, upper back, lower back or pelvic pain we've seen it all. Often it can be insidious in onset, one day your fine and the next minute your in pain. We're too quick to write it off as old age or just a fact of life but back pain shouldn't be a fact of life. When we’ve stressed our body to its adaptable limit, it will always let us know. Backaches and niggles are the body’s whispers, back pain is the body screaming out. It’s important we listen to the body’s needs when they first arise, after all prevention is better then the cure. I’m currently going through my own experience of not listening to my body’s needs and my back is currently screaming out loud and clear. Yes thats right Chiropractors aren’t immune from back pain either, the irony! I’ve been experiencing some lower back pain since Easter, up until now I’ve been fortunate enough to never really experience back pain of any sort, not bad for 40yrs, So it’s been enlightening first hand to say the least. So where did it all go wrong? In reflection it’s not what I did, its more a case of what I didn’t do to find myself in this situation. If I trace my steps back there were a few things that definitely contributed to my predicament. As a Chiropractor I too get regularly adjusted, it would be silly not too, practice what you preach right? Every 2 weeks I get a tune up adjustment, because that’s what works for me, on this occasion with Easter and being a bit busy I let it slide, and it was much longer.
My wife was away on a holiday, so whilst living the "bachelor life" I let my food choices go a bit, the “sometimes foods” became more often, I was having more and more couch time watching TV series (that my wife has no interest in) and going to bed much later. To cap it all off I was doing some, what I thought was a relatively simple DIY project under the house for a few hours, come Saturday morning I could barely walk or bend over, I had sharp pains with every movement, my back was saying NO!
As all good patients do I went into crisis mode, I tried to stretch it, I iced it, I even took anti-inflammatories just to be able to move and be able to sleep. I had some myotherapy massage, trust me if I could have adjusted myself I would have. Healing takes time, it took some time to get in this state so it was going to take time to get out of it too. I've subsequently had 3 adjustments in the last 2 weeks to correct the problem, whilst not 100% yet, I’m on the mend. It just goes to show when a lot of small stresses accumulate something has to give, whether its chemical, physical or mental stress, or when combined its beyond the body’s ability to adapt, and in my case acute back pain. Moral of the story, we’re not invincible, we are adaptable to a limit, when you neglect the small things like eating right, exercising, getting quality sleep and getting adjusted it can escalate into bigger things. Health is a balancing act, and it requires work.
