Taking Care of Oneself

Recently, my family (actually, my parents and me) have been planning on having me doing more exercise. After quite a while, I agreed with the idea, and tried looking for a home gym to buy.

One day, we went to a department store, and tried several of the home gyms they had. After trying the 4th one, I felt a tiny back pain. Usually, if this pain happened during the working hours, where I sit at the computer, my mind would probably be too occupied to notice it. Fortunately, I caught that feeling, and realized that I probably need to see a chiropractor before starting any real exercise — the last time I went to see one was around 5 or 6 years ago.

Last Saturday, I went to see a chiropractor for just a check-up. Unfortunately, there's much more things going on there. The first word he spoke was that my spinal structure might have a problem — upon his first glance, he saw that my left and right shoulders weren't at even height. After a bit of explanation (with diagram on one of his textbooks), he sent me away to the hospital, to have some x-rays on my spine, just to check how bad it is.

With just this first-time meeting, my mom was quite impressed. The last chiropractor we had just didn't do enough explanation (let alone a sensible analysis that actually told us what happened). But the doctor we went to see this time was a whole lot more professional. I agree with mom wholeheartedly; I felt I was in good hands.

After we came back to the clinic with the x-rays, we saw the problem as the doctor described — my lower spine bends to the right. The doctor also said that, to balance the whole spinal structure, my upper spine also bends the other way. So basically, right now my spine looks like an ugly S. :-(

Anyhow, even if the first chiropractor didn't catch this 6 years ago, I still consider myself lucky, since I came to see him before I get a chronic pain. At least I still have some time to fix my spine, though it might not be back to 100% straight.

Since I haven't got a chronic pain, the doctor didn't do any weird twisting on my back just yet. He just ordered me a custom shoe insoles used to adjust my leg heights (thereby re-balancing my left and right body weight more symmetrically). And by doing so, the spine can re-adjust itself without using force. :-)

Anyway, there is another reason why I write this post: to inform my dear sis. :P

Aom, if you read this, I can assure you that you'll get to see him when you come back here. Mom noticed that your shoulders are also uneven (probably worse than mine). So, it'll be great if you can come to fix it as soon as possible.