Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

Although my spinal decompression treatment is over, I'm now on "monthly maintenance" visits to my chiropractor, and today was my first such visit. I'm still in pretty good shape, and the leg and neck pain that prompted my initial visit is long gone. I just wish the visit hadn't been today, though, because I was so tired that I could easily have gone to bed as soon as I got off work at 1:30 PM. Unfortunately, I tend to get second wind and thus staying awake too late (like tonight). OTOH, if I'd gone to bed when I wanted to this afternoon, I would have missed several telephone calls from people who don't keep my strange hours.

As I've mentioned, I've been seeing a chiropractor since I got home from the Canada trip. I pinched a nerve in my back and had some difficulty walking during the latter half of the trip. The chiropractor took X-rays and showed me that the discs in my lower back and in my neck are somewhat compressed, and there are signs of arthritis in my neck. They persuaded me to spend a high-four-figure sum of money (not covered by insurance, but payable through my healthcare savings account) to undertake a treatment that essentially has me voluntarily being put on a rack. Of course that overstates it, but for each treatment, they put me on a table where they stretch my neck (a little bit more each treatment), then after that stretch my lower back. The intention here is to decompress the squashed spinal discs. After each treatment, the chiropractor works on my back and neck. Today was the ninth of twenty treatments.

Is it working? Well, the pain in my lower back and leg is gone, and I can walk a whole lot more without limping the way I was on the later part of the Canada trip. My neck still hurts, and probably will for a while, but I hope these treatments will help.

Meanwhile, both my shoulders are sore, mostly from yesterday's injections. The site of the flu shot hurts less than the COVID one. In retrospect, I probably should have reversed which shoulder got which shot, because my right shoulder already hurt from repetitive motion stress. Lisa also has the expects soreness around her injection sites, but was also complaining of cold chills overnight.