I'll be having my ACL reconstruction in less than 10 days, and as part of my total-body preparation, I've decided to start chiropractic therapy to make sure that my spine, muscles, and nerves are all in alignment. The theory behind chiropractic (from what I understand) is that one should look at the body as a whole machine - if a joint is misaligned then the body stops running smoothly. This may manifest itself as pain, tightness, numbness etc. I started having some numbness in my left thumb a few weeks after the ACL tear and some neck pain. Adam convinced me that it might be somewhat caused by my body being out of whack from the injury - he would know since he's from the biggest chiropractic family in the US.
So I searched around and found a chiropractor that 1. accepted my insurance 2. seemed to be reputable and 3. within a 5 minutes walk from my apartment. No 2 was especially important since the first time I visited a chiropractic office last year (after my right shoulder reconstruction!) I was treated by Dr. The Situation, who definitely GTLs and hit on me as he was adjusting.
And so I'm in Dr. Cohen's office on June 11th for what I consider to be my first real chiropractic session. I told him why I was there, the kind of pain/numbness I was having. He assessed my posture, did some joint tests, tested my reflexes and then assessed my back and spine. Then he adjusted my spine and my left elbow and wrist. Apparently the bones in my left wrist were all out of alignment which causes the numbness. Not sure what causes the misalignment, it could be that I have some weak wrists, typing a lot, how I sleep.
I've had 4 treatments now and I do walk away with less wrist discomfort. I have pretty good posture and not much back pain (probably due from Pilates), but I still have some slight neck pain (could also be due to how I sleep). Dr. Cohen does tell me that he can't cure everything wrong in a few visits, but that it's a process for my body (and wallet!). I'm hoping that having my spine and joints in alignment will also help me as I recover from surgery. Whatever helps, right?
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