Strange feeling: no pain

I had a strange feeling today. For a while, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Then I realized what it was: for the first time in months, maybe years, I was pain-free. I’m sitting here typing with the same kind of wondering, puzzled, amazed emotion. I can hardly believe it.

As I’ve mentioned recently (one, two, three) I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my neck.

It all stems from two rear-ender accidents that I’ve experienced in the past 14 years. Somehow, over all that time, even with countless physio appointments, doctor’s visits, stretches, and exercises, my neck has never really been right.

And just a few weeks ago, I really totally and completely massacred it, somehow, in the middle of the night.

But today, I feel good. I’ve been going to a chiropractor who has amazed me with his knowledge of my body and it mechanics. Dr. Grant O’Neill (he’s also an M.D.) in Surrey, BC, figured out just by looking at me that I’ve had issues with my shoulders (one has been dislocated about 6 times, the other about 4 times) and my ankles (severe repetive sprains).

And everything he’s said and done with the main problem, my neck, has made sense, and, more importantly, helped to fix it. Frankly, he’s like a physiotherapist with a better understanding of the mechanical underpinnings of the human skeleton. He’s slowly fixing the skeleton while giving me exercises and stretches that are re-orienting my muscles and nerves.

It’s still a little freaky, truthfully, when he cracks my neck and back vertebrae. After my first appointment, it was more painful, not less. But the pain was different: joint, versus muscle. And now, after every appointment, it feels better immediately.

It’s working, and I’m thankful!