Last Thursday, I went to PT (physical therapy). I had no idea what to expect and reached out on Twitter with how I should dress. The greater consensus was work-out wear, which I don’t own, so I grabbed a pair of yoga pants on my way (and found out later they are see through when I bend over. *sigh*) and just wore a t-shirt and tennis shoes.
I filled out a lot of paperwork and then spent about 40 minutes with the director of the place answering questions and doing range of motions exercises before he determined the cause of all of my back pain and the burning sensations.
I have had a dislocated rib for however long and it was pinching and irritating the nerve that runs alongside it. I have NO IDEA how I dislocated it, or when, as he also told me my collarbone (did you know that is technically a rib?) neck and right hip were also out of alignment. He theorized that part of my problem is the fact that my upper back has absolutely no curve at all even though it’s supposed to, which puts strain on my spine and all connected bones. He also thought that my hip being out of alignment would cause the rest of my body to try and compensate to keep me level. Basically, I am a whacked out mess.
Of course, the interesting part about the hip and collarbone is that they have both been out of alignment for AT LEAST 15 years. I called that hip my baby hip because it visibly jutted so far out from the other one that I could carry a baby on it and always did/do. It also means that one leg of my pants drags the ground when the other doesn’t. The collarbone thing causes halter dresses to always wear funny on me and I always had to tighten bra straps higher on one side than the other. I was once getting fitted for a halter style bridesmaid dress and the tailor could not get the darts in the front to work right no matter how many pins she added. She called the head seamstress in who stood behind me and declared the problem was that I was crooked. She removed all the front pins, put two pins on one shoulder seam and it was suddenly perfect.
So while I’ve known I was crooked for a long ass time, I didn’t know there was anything I could do about it.
The therapist cracked my neck back into place, worked my collar bone back even with the other one (no easy feat) almost completely corrected my hip and popped my rib back in. It’s like magic. Crazy, loud, painful, magic. Of course the burning started up again over the weekend, so I’m not sure what is going to happen in therapy today but the collar bone and hip seem to have stayed in place.
I guess this is why people go to chiropractors, eh?