When you are looking for a chiropractor, you often know something is wrong, but you aren’t sure exactly what it is and how it can be fixed.
Most patients find themselves thinking: “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I feel like something is going on”. They can tell something is not working right in their back and they want to do something before it gets worse. For the next few blog posts, I’ll be sharing some stories of patients of River Ridge Chiropractic (all names have been changed) and how they were helped.
Sometimes back injuries build up gradually over many years, despite looking healthy on the outside. I met Brian last year. He is an active guy from Asheville in his mid-thirties. He works out often and stays fit. Brian had tweaked his back in the gym a few times over the last 10 years, but overall had felt healthy. Any time he had a problem, he laid off the gym a bit until he felt better and then he began working out again. One day after a workout, Brian leaned over to pick up a towel and felt extreme pain in his back.
Brian found himself unable to enter or exit his vehicle without pain. He couldn’t even stand up on his own due to the injury. He was surprised because he had always considered himself a fit individual and this seemed to be as far away from being healthy as he could remember. He went to a doctor in Asheville, and the doctors were unsure what to do. They suggested surgery, sent Brian to physical therapy, and subscribed pain medication.
Brian knew he wanted to avoid surgery if possible. Overall he was still healthy and relatively young. He also worried that if he just took the pain medication, he would never resolve the underlying issue.
He researched various Asheville Chiropractors and was attracted to River Ridge Chiropractic due to the variety of modalities we offer (acupuncture, chiropractic, spinal decompression). I met Brian and ordered an MRI. Brian went to a local facility here in town that does MRIs. The facility took films, and then a medical-doctor radiologist wrote up a report and sent me the films.
We quickly discovered Brian had herniated a disc. He had an underlying mechanical issue with his back that caused it to slowly wear out over time. Picking up the towel was just the straw that broke the camel’s back.
My first goal was to have Brian regain some movement so he could at least stand up on his own and get out of a vehicle. We came up with a plan for his chiropractic, and developed nutrition and exercises to put him back on the right path. We began with some very routine adjusting, and as he got his mobility back, he was able to exercise again and move without pain.
Now Brian is back to the gym and feeling healthy, all without having to go through back surgery. The underlying mechanical issues in his back which caused the issue are resolved, and he can exercise pain-free.
Questions or comments? Put them here, email me at drbart@bellsouth.net or post on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RiverRidgeChiro
