Chiropractors are NOT quacks

     I just had to put a plug in for chiropractic care since mine and Evan's appointment yesterday.  I strongly believe in chiropractic care and I am going to tell you why.  I started going to a chiropractor when I was in high school playing volleyball.  I was at a tournament when I dove for a ball and fell wrong and had a rib out of place in my back.  I couldn't hardly breathe, let alone keep playing.  My coach immediately took me over to the chiropractor at the tournament who adjusted me and aligned my spine and rib back into place.  It was immediate relief.  I finished the tournament with no more problems.  However, afterwards I started getting back spasms in the area where my rib got out of place.  I didn't get them but once a year and just delt with them when they came, took muscle relaxers and pain medication and kept going.  I would tend to get a sharp catching pain on that same side that got worse after I had Evan.  The incident happened in 2004 and I didn't see a chiropractor again until 2009.  I went to a chiropractor who put me on a plan or tried to put me on a plan of coming 3 times a week and slowly work down to where I wouldn't come but when needed and at the time I neither wanted to nor had the money to spend for chiropractic care 3 times a week so I stopped going.
     I found out I was pregnant in December 2010.  I switched from my doctor to midwives when I was 32 weeks along, Evan was breech.  I was 100% against external aversion so I tried everything under the sun to get him to turn.  Part of this natural process was seeing a chiropractor who would do the Webster technique on me, sometimes 2 times a week.  Getting chiropractic care relieved so much tension in my back from the growing baby and helped loosen ligaments that made me feel great.  Chiropractic care was not the only method I chose for trying to turn a breech baby, I did everything from laying head down on an ironing board (which I ended up bending right in half), playing music down low so the baby would move to listen to it, taking a natural supplement pulsatilla, putting ice up top and warm down low so he would move to where it was comfortable...I say all this to show that there was a reason Evan did not turn; you'll have to read this in his birth story (a later post), not just that chiropractic care didn't work to turn him.
     I ended up with a cesarean and saw my same chiropractor about a month after Evan was born. The cranial bones of the c-section baby do not experience the passage through the birth canal, and in turn the essential process of natural cranial molding is missed.  She helped with that cranial molding and also helped adjust Evan's spine and neck to correct position since he had been sitting frank breech with his little head turned to the side.  Evan had quite a bit of trouble turning his head to the left side.  He always had it cocked to the right side.  When it came time for tummy time he had so much trouble because it was caught on the left side and he couldn't turn is head very well.  Once again we went to our chiropractor who saw him once a week and adjusted him and his little neck and he started turning it more easily to the left and tummy time became easier.
     We soon moved and started seeing another chiropractor in our new town.  Evan had reflux and trouble pooping at the time we moved and started going to our new chiropractor.  The chiropractor adjusted him and his reflux was not as bad and he pooped 3 times that day.  He explained how the spine is connected to the whole body and when anything is out of line it can cause a number of other problems one wouldn't usually associate with an out of aligned spine.  Here is a diagram to show how the spine and each vertebrae communicate with the rest of the body.

You can find this and other information at http://www.energymedicineclinic.co.uk/basics/the-spine.html.

     I started a treatment plan for my back because like I mentioned earlier the problem from my volleyball incident got worse after I had Evan.  At first it didn't seem to me like it was working but I trusted my doctor.  There is a reason for the plan after all.  :)  My spine had been used to carrying a certain way since the day I had my injury.  For 6 years it carried this way giving me discomfort and sometimes pain.  A one time visit was not going to fix this, I had to retrain my spine into correct aligned.  The plan took me from 3 times a week, to 2 times a week, to once a week, to every other week.  I no longer have a catch in my back or fear a back spasm.  I continue to see the chiropractor to keep me aligned from every day activities, driving, sleeping, playing with Evan, slouching over, etc.  

     There was lots of information to share in this blog and I feel so strongly about it, I did not want to leave anything out.  However, the reason for this long informational post and brag on chiropractic care was because of our recent visit to our old chiropractor back home when I came down to visit family.  I took Evan with me to have him adjusted because it had been a little while since his last adjustment.  I told her about what he was doing, things that were happening and mentioned that he crawled funny.  He crawls with one leg bent and one leg straight that helps him push off.  She watched him crawl a few feet and told me his pelvic area was misaligned, felt around a also told me his sacrum or little butt was locked up.  I wish I would have videoed from first crawl, to adjustment, to last crawl because as soon as she adjusted him and put him on the ground he crawled correctly over to the box of toys.  I was in shock and upset with myself.  I couldn't believe how fast his crawl could change and that I could have done something to prevent this when it originally started.  It was AMAZING!!!  He does crawl like he used to every now and then because of habit and especially on hard floors it tends to come out a little more but any time he is on the carpet he crawls correctly.  It was so awesome to witness this, I can't even explain.  

     Again I apologize for the long post but I feel so strongly about chiropractic care and wanted to give a personal account of ways chiropractic care has helped me and Evan so maybe you will give it a shot too.  :)