Category: chiropractor

M.I.A in Manhattan

Yes, I know.  I was M.I.A on Monday.  Missing In Action.  Actually I was in action, in movement, on the road.  This time my sister’s back went out and as she was unable to drive her car to get back to her apartment in New York City,  I drove her there on Monday.  So, it sort of was and sort of wasn’t an adventure.

Every time I go to Manhattan I call it an adventure.  It ‘s no big deal to go there, I just make it seem like that.  I make believe I’m doing some big thing, but I’m really not.  I’m used to the city.  I worked there as a paste-up artist years ago downtown in the 20’s and 5th Avenue.

When we were kids my mother took us into the city plenty of times. She grew up in Manhattan on Columbus Avenue on the West Side.  We lived just across the Queens Borough Bridge in Astoria and Manhattan was a bus ride over the bridge for us.  Our mom didn’t want us to be country bumpkins and not know how to navigate the city.  We had to dress well to visit, or to shop, or to go to the theater.  No one was wearing dungarees to Manhattan in the 1960’s!  Dungarees, aka jeans, were for weekend wear at home with comfy shoes and a sweater. 

Now when we go to the city my mom always remarks on how everyone in the city is dressed like a slob! Here and there you see some high society people, but even they’re not dressed to the nines.  What is everyone doing with their expensive designer clothes and shoes?  Most times the fancy people are dressed in rags and some regular schmoes are wearing Chanel on the street!  East side, west side, doesn’t matter.  Even on 5th Avenue or Madison Avenue, no one is really dressed like my mom was used to doing.  That time is over!

So anyway, I drove my sister to the West Side for her appointment, which took three hours.  But he’s a great chiropractor, so we didn’t care how long it took.  When we were done I dropped her off at her building and drove around for a half hour to find a place to park my Mountaineer.  Yeah, don’t worry.  Everyone in Manhattan is driving an S.U.V!  Why?  Who knows?  More trucks than Audis, BMW’s or Mercedes on the East side.  Park a truck in a garage and you have to pay extra!  I had to find street parking.

I found a spot, noted where I parked and walked a couple of blocks back to the apartment building.  The air was crisp, the sun high and warm, and I had an overall good feeling.  A free kind of feeling.  No agenda, nothing else to do, just a wonderful walk alone.  Head and eyes up and alert, but comfortable.

That’s a good kind of adventure for me.

Sketching While Waiting

I finally found a chiropractor I can live with after trying out the “Rock Star” and some others.  It’s not easy to put yourself in the hands of any doctor let alone someone who’s going to take your head and twist it around until it pops! 

This chiropractor is a woman and after my intial visit I felt very comfortable with her office, her methods and sensitivities.  No Rah-Rah-Chiropractic going on here, just normal procedures.  She’s also involved in kinesiology, or muscle testing, and uses that before deciding how to proceed.  Her office is attached to her house on a main street near where I live.  It’s pleasant, cool and quiet, thankfully.  The front office and receptionist is low-key like the doctor herself.  She’s a mom too and we can relate.  I told her my issues and she listened.  Not like the other guy who ran people in without asking what their problems were, did some spinal x-ray like thing and said, “Whoa! You’ve got tons of red alert issues, and you need to come for 65 visits, and please pay for them today, in full!”  Ah, no.

I had to wait a few extra minutes one morning and while I did I decided to take out my little drawing pad to sketch something.  I didn’t want to be obvious and sketch the other lady in the waiting room, which I love to do.  In a small room people are pretty aware of each other, not like a big room with lots of patients where I could hide what I was doing.  So I fixed on my hands in my lap holding the pad and rapidograph on top of my handbag.  You know, when no one else is available to pose I’m pretty reliable!  I’m used to posing for me, isn’t that nice?  Yeah, you can laugh now, I know it’s nutty, but “myself” is always around!

I’m off to have my body twisted and cracked now.  I can’t wait!

Rock Star Doctor Much?

I’m sitting at the computer searching for a new chiropractor.  It’s tedious work to sift through all the information that’s out there.  Most of the info is more like no info, you get that?  There’s the doctor’s name and contact information on a listing and when I click through to a website there’s very little there.  Or, there’s too much there. 

The guy I made an appointment with last week was into building up his business more than the health side, although he seemed excited about the health benefits of it.  I sat through the initial consultation and thermal spinal scan, which took forever, after waiting in that awful waiting area with a million people for an hour, only to find out that I had to return the next day.  They do an informal 2 hour info/lecture on this guy’s chiropractic method, among other things they do, and after that’s over you get to see the results of the consultation.  Well, after the first visit, when the secretary told me I had to return for this lecture and bring a family member because it was “very, very important”, I stopped dead in my tracks.  She told me this while I was putting on my jakcet and I froze, arm in mid-sleeve with a look on my face that said, “What?”  Hey, I’ve been to chiropractors before and never had to sit through an info-mercial about it!  Give me a freaking break, here!  I just want an adjustment and go home, thank you!

I know about of the benefits of chiropractic since I’ve had a couple of really good ones help me with my herniated disc and related pain.  My first doctor passed away, the other really good one is in Manhattan, too much trouble to visit a couple times a week. Besides spinal manipulation, I use something called Emotional Freedom Technique, or EFT for short, which releases negative energy by tapping on acupunture pressure points and saying affirmations.  Works really well.  The NYC doctor used Applied Kineseology which is a muscle testing technique to find weaknesses in the body.  Why have surgery if all this information is out there, and it works?

Well, this guy must think he’s a rock star or something, the way he lectured the 8 people at this meeting, for almost 2 hours!  I’ve got things to do, mister!  My eyes were rolling around in my head. I thought this was totally disrespectful of my own time.  It was such a heavy sales pitch, like Rah Rah Chiropractic! Yayyyyy!  Everyone in the room was clapping when he was done, but me.

Afterwards I waited in the hallway.  Too noisy, hot, and whatever in that waiting room.  The guy was ready and I saw him in one of the many treatment rooms.  He started going over my chart.  Well, I had to tell him what I thought of his waiting room, #1, and then his sale pitch, #2.  I explained I am well aware of the various techniques and how they can help keep us in good health.  I told him I do EFT, guided imagery, etc.  Anyway, bottom line, he says I need 65 visits, twice a week, paid up front!  Yikes!  Um, I don’t think so.  Why dump such a huge chunk of change in this guy’s hands?  What if he goes under for some reason?  What if I can’t continue?  There were so many things wrong about this.  I told him I had to sleep on it.  He was shocked!  He didn’t know what to do to keep me coming back to his practice.  Ok, so the adjustment I finally had was really good and lasted until the next day, but to pay over $4000 to him then and there?  Uh-uh.

So, here I am Googling through info.  Do I have to make appointments with every chiropractor in my area to see who is normal and not a rock star?  This is going to take time.