Shackled by my spine

Travel sure is educational! I’ve been learning all about spines – my spine, in particular – and terms like phase one subluxation degeneration.

The Air Berlin flight from Düsseldorf to San Francisco was an ordeal. My symptoms had been getting worse, and I couldn’t find a comfortable way to hold my left arm without feeling like it was about to pull off my shoulder. My entire forearm felt like one huge, twanging funny bone when it wasn’t feeling tingly, numb, or knotted. My upper back was a similar mess. The in-flight meal was scant consolation.

It’s a good thing that I was returning home anyway. See family and friends, yes, familiar sights, blah blah, quality medical care, sure. My main issue was that with my left arm stricken, I cannot properly wring dry my hand-washed clothes. Light-weight travel, it seemed, is on pause until I can get better.

My sister recommended I see her chiropractor. She even phoned and made a same-day morning appointment for me. Sure, I only had fifteen minutes to go from sleepy-in-bed to the doctor’s office ten minutes’ drive away, but I made it, getting lost only twice.

Some paperwork, one informative video, and a free consultation and neck adjustment later, I was at another office getting my spine blasted by x-rays, with a lead-lined cup hopefully shielding my boys from the worst of it.

At my next appointment (as a paying patient), the chiropractor explained that the mild scoliosis was the least of my chiropractic concerns. Her main concern was the phase one subluxation (vertebral misalignment) in my neck, and a lesser subluxation in my back. From the side, my neck resembles a giraffe’s, without the normal gentle, backward curve. This puts pressure on the sacks of gel padding each vertebra, which can lead to additional problems if left untreated (phases two through four (painful immobilization)).

The doctor mused that my condition has been building up over time, from sitting on planes, trains, and automobiles for too long, too often. Instead, I suspect that my approaches to avoiding snoring (sleeping on my (usually right) side, propping my head up at a steep incline) are the main culprits.

Yes, travel is educational, but it can also be perilous to one’s spine.

My treatment consists of adjustments and exercises, three times a week for four weeks, then twice a week for four weeks, then once a week for four weeks. Pretty expensive in time and money, but if it gets me my back back and me back traveling, then it’s worth it. Three months, though, is a lot longer than I had expected to be visiting…

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