Day Five and Six

Wow! I feel great! Well, I feel great compared to how I have felt for a long time! Two good days in treatment, heading out of town for the weekend to see family and say goodbye before we jet off to get married! I am so grateful for the progress I have made before our trip.

Day Four

So it is a few hours before my appointment, but I wanted to write about my experience after last night's treatment. Once again, I was sore immediately following the decompression. I requested that they ice my leg as well as my back, which they did. That seemed to help slightly. I woke up this morning, moved around, and felt another spurt of hope. I was in less pain and less numbness again. I took some ibuprofen just in case, but as of early afternoon, I feel a wonderful improvement. Hopefully every day continues to show improvement, I have one week before I leave for my wedding/honeymoon in Jamaica!

OK, appointment over, they added two pounds to the machine, and decided to administer ice and electricity to my hamstring as well as my back after the decompression, since both were having spasms pretty bad. The picture at the top is the table that loosens me up first thing every day. I felt so much better after this treatment than normal! Let's hope for the best!

Day Three

So it is a Monday, after a long weekend of soreness and stiff muscles through my back and leg. My fiance decided to go to this treatment with me and see what it was all about. I took the picture above while I was strapped to the decompression table. Each time, immediately after the treatment and the electricity, getting up from the table is painful and difficult. Today they gave me a belt (seems like a back brace to me) to wear for two hours after each treatment. They also increased the weight on the decompression machine and bumped up the oxygen. For several hours following the visit, I was very sore and everything felt tight.


Today is Tuesday, the morning after a bad night. I woke up today and for the first time in several weeks, my leg was not asleep. As I shifted and lifted my back in bed, the pain was there but not as bad. Getting dressed and driving caused an increase in pain, but so far throughout the day I would say I am overall feeling slightly better rather than worse finally! I don't want to jump the gun and get my hopes too high, we will see how this evening goes.

Day Two

I went through the same process as day one, but this was a Friday so I will not be back until Monday. Over the weekend, I was sore and stiff, and on Sunday night a few muscles in another part of my leg seemed to swell or react in some way with discomfort. I took it easy (as though I had a choice) and told myself that he warned me not to get frustrated. The tingling and numbness increased as well, along with some shaking.

Treatment Day One

So I went in for my first treatment today, and Dr. Smith went through everything very thoroughly with me. He also warned me that through the first several treatments, I should expect some soreness and possibly increased pain. The first thing was to stretch out my back on a table and answer any questions I had. To anyone going through this, I would suggest writing questions down before you go, because I drew a blank! There are two rooms each with two machines in them. I laid on my back, they strapped me in snugly, propped up my knees, gave me a pillow, gave me some oxygen, and told me I could read or text or whatever I wanted. The top half holds your upper body in place while the bottom half slowly and gently pulls your lower body at a specific angle designed to target the correct vertebrae. The process took about 20 minutes, and I felt no pain. The next step was to go into a room where they immediately used ice and electricity to ensure that my muscles did not react negatively to the treatment, and I was administered oxygen in there as well. Lastly, they used a laser on the spine to speed up recovery. I will continue to go through this process at each treatment. As far as how I feel after the fact...
I feel a small amount of tightness in my back, and a small increase in pain in my leg, but nothing major. I am ready for round two.

Initial Examination

My first visit to Dr. smith's office was one of uncertainty and hope. He went through my history with me and decided to do x-rays, feeling certain that there was a bulging disc in my vertebrae at the least. I had two previous x-rays done by two different doctors, so I was not very confident that he would discover the problem that easily. As soon as the x-ray was put up for me to look at, and I sat in the office waiting on him to come back, I could tell with my on untrained eyes that something was wrong. I had a severely compressed disc that was pinching a nerve that runs down my left leg, he would go on to tell me. Years of misdiagnosis and poor treatment plans had left the two vertebrae to nearly fuse together and cause a handful of problems. He explained what spinal decompression was, and although it sounded a little scary and I had never heard of it, I was more confident in him than I had been in anyone thus far, so I signed the dotted line and decided to write this blog to tell you of my journey through this process. It is also a good way for me to keep track of my progress and remember questions to ask at each visit. I will include as many possible links and resources as possible. The above pictures show the disc compression. Mine is stage two, the third from the left on the model. The x-ray compares my compressed disc to one of my healthy discs.

Background

At the age of 26, I woke up one day barely able to walk and feeling an unbearable level of pain. I went to my doctor, who did some x-rays, gave me some pills, and sent me to physical therapy. After three months of therapy, many days of missed work, and hundreds of dollars, I felt mostly better. Seven months later, the pain came on again, only gradually this time. My left leg was suffering, as well as my low back. At this time, I went to a different doctor, who did some x-rays, said they looked fine, and have me, like the other one, muscle relaxers and painkillers. After several weeks, the pain lessened but would stick it's head in from time to time. Another year went by and another "attack" came. I was hesitant to go to the doctor and I didn't want any more pills. I dealt with the pain and after about two weeks, my left leg muscles became very tight and sore. With an upcoming wedding I strolled back into the doctor's office and begged for help. He diagnosed me with some unheard of syndrome and gave anti-inflammatory pills. They did nothing, and the pain became worse, I was unable to stand or walk for any length of time. He decided it must be something in my back and sent me to physical therapy. After three weeks and several hundred more dollars, the pain was getting worse and my leg started going numb more and more every day. The physical therapist had mentioned that my alignment was out, so at the end of my rope, I decided to go to a chiropractor. This is where my journey begins and will continue as I spend nearly every day in treatment at his office with a hopeful outlook.