Many months later

Well, I haven't exactly been keeping up with this blog, but I did want to close it out by saying that I had a very positive experience with the folks at the Spinal Relief Center of Redmond.

My problems are not miraculously cured, but I must say that my back is in a good deal better shape than it was when I went in to see these folks. I'm certain that there are lots of back problems that can be completely cured with this process. Mine just didn't happen to be one of them.

So, if anyone has hit this blog in search of a review of the spinal decompression process, my last word to you is that it is worth the time and money. Some of you out there may even experience a total cure. At the very least, I think you will feel much better, and we sorta have to take whatever we can get when we have these kinds of problems.

Did I Mention I'm Still Going to the Spinal Relief Center?

Well, I am. Let's see...it's June 22, 2009 and I started treatement in late September 2008. Am I cured? Well, I think that I have benefitted from the treatment, and I think I have learned a lot in terms of what muscle groups to target to keep strong to help support the back, but I do not feel as though all the problems with my herniated disks are cured. But I also know there are other forces at work - my hips being out of alignment, my foot being FUBAR'ed pretty bad, and well, just falling apart generally - so I don't blame the folks at Spinal Relief Center that I am not miraculously "fixed". In fact, most days, I feel ready for the glue factory. Ah...

Still Getting Stretched....

Just checking in with an update on the spinal relief treatments. They are still going on. Dr. Meadows and his crew have continued my treatments and make accommodations for my unscheduled absences. I think they're great. I believe that I am still responding to the treatment as my overall pain level has decreased. And this past weekend, I noticed that the pain had moved out of the back entirely. Quite the milestone. I now have pain deep inside my left butt cheek. Dr. Meadows did an adjustment today to free up - I dunno....something - and it helped quite a bit. He also showed me a stretch to use after walking which was profoundly painful to do. Of course, that made me happy because that meant that his diagnosis was right on.

So, anyone who is reading this - I would not hesitate to sign up with these guys if you have lower disk problems. (I think they even treat neck damage too, but I don't know too much about that).

January 7, 2009 - My Back Hurts....

**sigh** Well, I wish I were posting that all of my back problems were solved after 3 months of decompression, but they're not. I had a treatment yesterday, and the treatment itself hurt quite a bit, but that didn't concern me as they do, from time to time, get rather uncomfortable. Nothing that someone who has been living with chronic back pain can't deal with - but ranging from moderate to severe discomfort nonetheless. Anyway, after getting off of the DRX9000, I then did some Spine Force work, and went on about my merry way to work and so forth. I noticed throughout the day that I was starting to feel twinges of pain and had some pretty severe pain in my upper back that hadn't been there before. Now I'm not blaming the treatment for that part of it - that part could be that I have recently started playing video games again pretty heavily, so I dont' think the pain in my upper shoulder was because of the treatment. However - about the time I was ready to go to bed (which I'm very grateful for the timing here) I felt something change very quickly - like when you throw out a disk or something, and I was in heavy pain - like an 8 level pain. So I had the husband grab my ice-pack out of the fridge, and went to bed and lay very, very still on that ice pack until I fell asleep. I got up this morning and it was better, but still hurting. I rode the bus to work with it still hurting. And, as I write this post, I am sitting on an ice pack here at work in hopes that it will help cool-down these disks before I have to slog to the bus and ride back home.

I'm sure that Dr. Meadows will do something about it tomorrow. He's a pretty good guy and has always been very responsive to changes in pain. Maybe we did a little too much spine force. Who knows. But I thought I'd just chronicle that there has been no Miracle Max cure thus far.