Friday 12 June 2009

At last, a glimmer of common sense

Yesterday, I went for my first McTimoney chiropractic treatment. A friend has been trying to get me to go for ages, but after bad experiences with physio and remedial massage, I was very reluctant. I'm now very much as the point of 'last resort', however, so I decided to try it.

I have to be honest and say that I can't for the life of me see how the little flicks they do could make the slightest bit of difference, but I'm keeping an open mind.

The practitioner, though, was a breath of fresh air!

He took the most detailed medical history I've ever been asked for, and was the only person not to look at me like I'm mad, or making it up, when I listed the many types of pain and neurological disturbance I have to deal with every day. It was so nice to have someone tell me it's a good idea to use a walking stick rather than fall down(!), to not sit there and tell me I should use my arm more, swing my arm naturally as I walk, relax my shoulder and all sorts of other things that are impossible with the pain. He just understood that everything I'm doing is a reaction to the pain, and an adaptation so that I can continue to function at some level. He not only understood that, he applauded it!

Thank God for someone with the common sense to see that I wouldn't be holding my arm this way, sitting this way, doing everything one-handed and walking with a stick if I didn't have to!

After taking the history, he said there was lots of diagnostic testing he could do, but it's all very 'antagonistic' and would only make things worse (he could see I was already having a bad day); a good history should be enough. A medical person with the sense to see that pulling my arm around just to see if it hurts is a bad idea? One who actually realises that I know my pain best, and doesn't argue with me about it? Unheard of!

He did a couple of very small things to start the treatment off, and then I have to go back next week. Despite being incredibly gentle, I was still in a lot of pain afterwards and had a pretty miserable evening, but he'd warned me that would probably be the case, and I'm not naive enough to think that something which could help wouldn't upset it a bit at first.

But I will be going back next time. Even if the treatment doesn't make a blind bit of difference, it was worth the money yesterday to find a medical pratctitioner who actually listened!

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