My Sessions with the Chiropractor

As of a week or so ago, the sore muscle in my thigh was getting worse and worse, and it was taking longer and longer to get warmed up. On a painful 3 miler around the park, I ran into a friend from my dog training club who lives in my 'hood. In addition to dog training, she is a ski instructor, golfer and line dancer.

She suggested I visit her chiropractor. She said this particular chiropractor works on a lot of runners, including a locally famous Olympic marathoner.

I have been taking the dogs to a chiropractor for a couple of years now, and have been impressed with how much it seems to help them, but for some reason I had never considered this for myself.

I made an appointment for a few days later, and subsequently discovered that several other dog friends also went to this same human chiropractor for treatment, and all spoke highly of her.

Went last Thursday. Generally liked her, and had an overall positive impression. She spent a long time taking my history. The treatment consisted of some work on my spine and pelvis, and some deep tissue massage of the sore muscle. After she worked on me, I spent twelve minutes hooked up to one of those electrical stimulation devices with an ice pack on the area as well. She said she wanted to see me again the next day, and possibly three times the following week.

This seemed a little extreme to me but I figured it was worth a shot.

On the negative side, like so many medical practicioners, she quickly became obsessed with the idea that running was bad for my knee. It did not seem to matter how many times I explained that the knee surgery was back in 2003, and that the knee is really not the problem that brought me there---although the muscle pull did seem to be aggravating it---and that although I do FINISH marathons, I am not out there training excessively, blah, blah, blah. I get tired of having to explain it.

I thought the current medical research was all about how running was not bad for your knees at all. Anyway, this is an agility injury. Happened during agility and is aggravated by agility. Running in a straight line is not a problem. Kneeling, deep knee bends, skiing---those are the problems, and I don't do that stuff anymore.

The treatment had an immediate positive affect on the muscle soreness. In fact, the pain went away almost entirely. I was able to run agility in class Thursday night without pain for the first time in weeks. The knee, however, did not care for it much. In fact, the knee was slighly swollen and a little stiff when I returned for the next session the following day.

She did not want to believe me when I told her that my knee had not been this swollen in years. But we decided that she just needed to be extra careful in how she worked on me to avoid aggravating the knee, and I needed to tell her right away if something didn't feel right. And we iced the knee in addition to the thigh during the electro stimulation.

She still could not get that "running is bad for you" thing out of her head. Well, who has time to run when you are spending all this time in physical therapy? But, because the muscle pain was so much better, she said I probably only needed to come back twice the next week.

Later in the afternoon, bending slightly to assemble a dog crate, I felt a sharp pain in the knee at a level that I had not felt since before the 2003 surgery. This ticked me off. Fix one thing, screw up another?

But my knee is a funny thing, very susceptible to subtle psychological changes. Sometimes it hurts on the start line of a race, just because I am a little nervous. That's mostly why I still wear the knee brace for agility. It's my security blanket.

But I felt fabulous all weekend at the UKC conformation show with Eddy and Zen. I was able to run around the ring counterclockwise  and move freely without pain, again for the first time in maybe six weeks. And the knee was fine, too.

Monday morning, as I prepared to return to the chiropractor for session # 3, my knee started talking to me. It seems my knee has developed a phobia of chiropractic care. As she worked on me, being even more careful than previously to avoid things that the knee disliked (hah! she is what the knee dislikes! the knee wants to avoid visiting the chiropractor entirely!), we discussed running shoes and orthotics. I told her about my latest theory of running in the cheapest shoes I can find, and switching them out whenever I feel a little pain. She told me about the new type of orthotics that are developed for the body in motion rather than based on a stationary cast of a foot. I told her about how I no longer stretch, and I find that I am less injured that way. I can tell she thinks I am crazy.

Anyway, after working on me briefly, she pronounced me released from treatment and said I did not need to return later in the week. We discussed ongoing care, and she said I might want to come in every six to eight weeks for an adjustment, and to call her right away if I start to feel anything going on. Which I will, unless it involves my knee!

Knee did not feel so hot on a 2 mile walk with the dogs right after the chiropractor visit. But after some ice and Aleve it was much improved. Going to maybe go for a run later today, first time in a week. My knee is happy that we are done with the chiropractor for the moment, and the rest of my body feels pretty good for a change.

So I guess I am sold on chiropractic, more or less---but don't tell that to my knee!