So the first appointment with the chiropractor was today. No twisting and turning or breaking occurred today. I got two injections and a series of X rays. While I do have evidence old hairline fractures cracking around in there, they're long calcified, and nothing can be done with them. I also have some disc damage, but she hopes to be able to fix that with readjustment. To get an idea of what happened to my back, try this:

Take your hands and extend your forefingers and thumbs into an L shape. Touch those together so you see the big square right? imagine that's my pelvic girdle region, and there's a spine going up the center, and the curve of your thumbs is the hip joints. Now shift your right hand up about an inch, and turn your left hand at a 45 degree angle, and that's what's happened to the lower section of my spine. Now, surround that entire area with masses and masses of scar tissue that is constantly tearing, tightening, and crushing my left sacrum further and further into its socket against the spine, while the right sacrum join is so loose it's wobbling on coming out of its socket completely.



I'm utterly boggled by how the neurologist didn't see something like this on the MRI I had two years ago. I can certainly see something amiss in there, as can everyone else who's looked at it, though we don't have the training or information to say exactly what it is. Then again, I haven't been able to afford any more MRI's or Xrays of the area until now, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and think that perhaps it's just steadily decayed over the past two years. Either way, I'm not happy.

I get copies of my Xrays next week. I wonder if I can find a good way to scan them, to show anyone who's interested. The injections I received today were a mixture of Lidocaine and something else that I can't even begin to pronounce, much less spell. The lidocaine numbed the area (complete and total bliss for about three hours!) and the other drug is formulated to dissolve scar tissue. There's huge knotted clumps of it in there that need to be dissolved before any adjustment can take place. I have a series of excersizes to do once a day for a week, then I go in for more injections. Whatever it is that's supposed to make the scar tissue dissolve burns like hell up and down the entirety of my left leg until the lidocaine takes over though, so that's not happy. But the lidocaine has worn off now (five hours later) and it doesn't hurt any more than normal.

She's cautiously optimistic that she can reduce my pain level by at least 40%. I'll take it!