San Diego Chiropractic Blog

I had a new patient that was visiting San Diego from Hawaii the other day. She was in her mid forties and had severe neck pain. She was referred to my chiropractic office in San Diego for treatment of neck pain that began after sleeping funny on the airplane.

The first thing out of her mouth when she walked into my office was “I need to tell you that I have never been to a chiropractor before and I am really nervous!”

I found out later on that she also told my assistant the same thing when she called for an appointment only at that time she used the word “scared”.

Of course my response was “why in the world are you in my office?” After all, she was on vacation, in pain and in a type of doctors’ office that she had never been to before and really wasn’t comfortable with.

It turns out the people that she was visiting were patients of mine and they thought that I could help her and she followed their lead. I also promised her that I would not recommend treatment if I wasn’t sure that I could help relieve her neck pain. I also promised her that I would keep every portion of my treatment within her comfort zone.

I examined her and found that she had the typical, “slept wrong” kind of neck pain. She couldn’t tilt her head backwards or turn it to the right side without wincing in pain. She definitely had a classic pinched nerve.

I asked her if she had done anything for it since it started hurting and she said that she had been using heat to help sooth it. I hear this often. People use heat because it is soothing. I explained to her that heat actually causes more inflammation and that she should switch to ice packs right away.

I could tell that she was getting more and more comfortable with me and she was getting more comfortable with being at the chiropractor.

I told her that getting a chiropractic adjustment would help restore her range of motion, that it probably wouldn’t hurt and that I would not need to see her more than 5 to 6 times based on what I saw in the examination.

With nervous anticipation, she let me adjust her neck. She let out a little yelp when I adjusted the joints on the right side of her neck and then immediately said “THAT FELT GOOD - IT FELT LIKE EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED”.

I ended up treating her three times - Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. She told me that she was completely healed after Tuesdays’ treatment but she wanted to get treated one more time “just to make sure”.

She told me that she gets the stiff neck five or six times a year and normally it takes about ten days to totally resolve. She was elated that it only took two days this time and she said that she was so happy that she tried chiropractic care.

The patient also said that she was going to find a chiropractor in Hawaii to begin maintenance treatments. I thought that was an excellent idea.

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Here’s To Your Health

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San Diego Chiropractic

Dr. Jones Your Mission Valley Doctor for :

• Whiplash Doctor
• Treating Whiplash Mission Valley SD
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• Sport Injury Pain Relief

My Chiropractic office in San Diego, California provides treatment for many patients who complain of lower back pain that is accompanied by leg pain. The term for this leg pain is sciatica and it implies that the leg pain is due to a compression of the sciatic nerve.

More often than not, sciatica is due to compression of the nerve at the point where it exits the spine. The typical scenario is that one of the five joints in the lower part of the spine will become misaligned, irritated and inflamed, putting pressure on the sciatic nerve and causing leg pain.

Because so many cases of sciatic pain are caused by spinal misalignments, in many cases this condition is effectively treated with chiropractic care.

Chiropractic treatment for sciatica can involve spinal adjustments, hot packs, ice packs, electrical muscle stimulation, ultrasound, traction and specific stretches / exercises. Typically, chiropractic treatment for this condition requires a course of care rather than a single visit.

Although many cases of sciatica are due to simple spinal misalignments, there are other causes of this condition that must be examined. Some of the other leading causes of sciatic pain are as follows.

1) Bulging Disc: A bulging disc is also known as a slipped disc. This means the gel-like center of the disc bulges up against the nerve root. Disc bulges can cause pain, numbness, tingling, and muscle weakness. Typically, disc bulges generate pain with sitting, bending and twisting motions.

2) Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: Spinal stenosis is a type of nerve compression that most often affects older people. Leg pain similar to sciatica can occur as a result of lumbar spinal stenosis. The pain is usually brought on by activities such as standing or walking and relieved by sitting down.

3) Spondylolisthesis: Spondylolisthesis is a disorder that is characterized by one vertebra slipping forward over the vertebra below it. When the vertebra slips and becomes displaced, spinal nerve root compression occurs and often causes sciatic leg pain. Spondylolisthesis has many possible origins including developmental (found at birth, develops during childhood) or acquired as a result of degeneration, trauma or physical stress.

4) Trauma: Sciatica can result from nerve compression caused by external forces from such things as motor vehicle accidents, falls, work injuries and sports injuries.

5) Piriformis Syndrome: Piriformis syndrome derives its name from the piriformis muscle and the pain that arises when the muscle irritates the sciatic nerve. The sciatic nerve runs beneath the piriformis muscle and develops pain when muscle spasms develop compressing the sciatic nerve. It may be difficult to diagnose and treat due to the lack of x-ray or MRI findings.

6) Spinal Tumors: Tumors are abnormal growths that are either benign or cancerous. Fortunately, spinal tumors are rare. When a tumor develops in the lower back, there is a possibility for sciatica to develop as a result of nerve compression.

More Coming Soon

Dr. Jones

www.JonesPainRelief.com