After the flu and protracted anxiety, my neck and ribs were FUBAR. I mean, totally FUBAR. As in, I couldn’t turn my head far enough to change lanes while driving the Jeep.

Yesterday I drove to town and went to see Dr. Crossland. I’d taken Brett there before, but had never been myself. It was AWESOME!

I walked in the door, the lobby was empty, and the good doctor himself was in the office. He had me fill out a little card and took me straight back. No waiting!

The exam room had a chair, a table, and a… contraption. I sat first in the chair, and he discovered my many misalignments by gently poking and prodding with his thumbs. Then onto the contraption I went. It was a tilting chiropractic table – you’d walk up to it, lean forward and put your arms on a couple of rests, and then the whole thing would tilt down. (It felt cool, there was some mild low back stretch from the tilt. I dug it.)

The doc was an old guy, white haired and bright eyed, and you could tell he’d been doing this forEVER. He was totally comfortable, assured, and thorough. I’d only ever been to one chiropractor in my life – the wonderful and flaky Dr. Deb Peters – so I’d never been crunched before, and after every loud noise I steeled myself for it to hurt… but it never did! The man made my back, neck, and hips make THE most insane crunching noises but it felt great!

Honestly, I had no idea. I’m the kind of person who will walk away from people who crack their knuckles or necks – I hate it. Ewh!

But this guy was amazing. After a few minutes on the contraption, he put me on the other table, where I had my lower back popped through some wonderful contortion involving the patient on her side with the upper leg bent, and the good doctor pulling the hip and pushing the shoulder. Yum!

Then back to the contraption to get my back and hips pushed on, then back in the chair for some neck release, then back on the contraption to learn that my legs were now the same length again. The man’s neck un-fucking procedure was freaky: he just took hold of my head, twisted and pulled! And it did not hurt! It sounded totally freaky, but when he was done I could feel blood rushing back into my shoulder muscles for the first time in probably two or three weeks.!

THE MAN IS AWESOME. He showed me a few stretches to do, told me that my bronchia and sinuses might let loose a little after the adjustment, and then only charged me 36 bucks!

He was right, too – last night I coughed pretty determinedly for about an hour after dinner, and I think I pretty much got up the remaining flu garbage that had been stuck in there. (My ribs were all crooked and I guess I hadn’t been able to produce a decent cough.) I love Dr. Crossland! Yay!

This is how screwed up I am. The day before yesterday, I was pretty badly amped. Had to do a bunch of yoga and japa when I got home from work, and I was pretty sweaty-palmed and geeked out much of the day, but it was tolerable.

Last night was pretty rough too but it eased off and I crashed around eight, only to wake up when Brett came to bed and be unable to get back to sleep.

I was up and pretty miserable most of the night, and finally fell asleep around six or seven. Yes, this made me incredibly late to work.

Now it’s 1:15 and I’m having another panic attack. A bad one. It’s like way too much really-really-really bad speed, but I haven’t even had so much as a cup of tea for the past 48 hours.

This shit is basically daily now. I AM SO UNCOMFORTABLE. I HATE IT.
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