dianaschnuth

Had my very first chiropractor visit this evening after work. I declare it a success… if a bit more expensive than Dr. Smith would have been.

I located the building with no problem (apart from irking the guy in the car behind me, who wanted to drive just a little faster). It was, in fact, right across from the Mango Tree restaurant, as promised. Parked the car in the lot behind the building, walked in, and found Dr. Hendricks’ door just inside. I wasn’t prepared for the small receptionist-less waiting room. There was one other man waiting there, and I asked him if I needed to let anyone know I was there. He was friendly, thankfully, and told me that Dr. Hendricks would come out and get me when she was ready. Which she did.

She came out in a polo shirt and shorts. No name tag, no white lab coat, none of that. I told her I was there to see Dr. Hendricks, and she said she was Dr. Hendricks. Casual, low-key, friendly. OK. She gave me paperwork to fill out, then disappeared back behind one of two doors to finish up with her previous patient.

When the patient before me was done, Dr. Sue (as I heard that patient call her) gestured me in. I took off my shirt and put on a back-fastening gown, then laid face-down on the table. She felt along my spine, starting at my neck, all the way down and back up. She identified tense areas I didn’t even know were there — but, once I thought about it, I realized that my neck *does* tend to be a little tense. She mentioned later during the session that it seemed as if this was a long time coming, and the weekend of painting just set my lower back over the edge.

Hopefully I’m not revealing any trade secrets here… She put moist, hot cloths on my neck and lower back, and left them there for a few minutes. Then she took them off my neck and adjusted my neck (that is, gave it a good twist so it popped better than I can ever do). After that, she cracked my upper back — and oooohhhhh, that felt soooo good. I haven’t had a good back-cracking in years. (I figured it might be a good idea not to mention my family’s penchant for back-cracking to the chiropractor, though.)

Then she removed the heat from my lower back and made the back half of the table move around. It was like she was circling my legs around from the hips, stretching out my lower back. That felt pretty good, too. After that, she did ultrasound therapy on my lower back, which felt oddly tingly and was supposed to be loosening and relaxing those muscles. Then she had me flip onto my back so she could properly crack my neck (ohhhh, yeah).

Then I was done. The visit took about a half hour, and I feel much better having done it.

As I was getting ready to leave, I asked her how much I owed her. She said she wasn’t sure, because she didn’t know how my insurance worked. I told her I thought it was an 80-20 thing, so she had me pay her $25, which is much more than Dr. Smith would have cost for a visit. I’m still betting that she just didn’t know how my insurance worked, and that I got overcharged for this visit. No way can she really be three times as expensive as Dr. Smith.

Now, two hours later, my back feels better than it has all week, but still considerably tighter than when I left Dr. Sue’s office.

I have a follow-up appointment on Monday evening at 6pm. I’m looking forward to it.