i love my chiropractor

my chiropractor rocks. he is the most unassuming, no-nonsense kind of a guy. and i've been having to visit him a lot lately, following the car accident. thankfully the other guy's CTP insurer is going to pay for $500 worth of treatment for me (i have to apply if i require more than that), so that helps in the short term anyway, and john isn't that expensive so i'll get a lot out of that money.

his practice is at maroubra beach, which i must say is quite pleasant if you have to go there frequently. at the moment it's pretty quiet, and yesterday i enjoyed an ice cream and a shambling kind of walk after my treatment.

the reason i love my chiro is that he doesn't just crack your back and kick you out the door. he does a good strong massage first and puts heat on the area. most times he also does a bit of acupunture and i have to admit this is one of my favourite bits. most acupuncture only deals with the fairly superficial, the needles are put in but not very deep - something like this:


however the kind of acupuncture john does is slightly different (i thought he called it thoracic acupuncture, but i could be wrong). rather than targeting acupoints, he sinks the entire needle into the muscle to release the tension there. you feel a bit of a twang when the needle hits the muscle, but then, as he says, it's like putting a hole in a balloon, and all the tension gradually dissipates. it sounds weird. it is weird. but it is so good.

yesterday he did my traps (shoulders) and my glutes (around the hip area). i had a look at the ones in my hip (couldn't see the shoulders, obviously) and the whole ten centimetres of the needle was in, with just the tip showing. love it. he said to me once how he admired us "Aussie sheilas", "i sink this bloody great needle into you and you go 'yeah whatever' - you should see some of these big blokes, built like tanks, tough as anything, you just show them the needle and they start crying."

then he cracked my neck and my lower back and sent me on my way. that is the other favourite bit - that satisfying crunch when he does the manipulation. when you think about it, it's a pretty precarious position to be in, someone messing around with your spine like that. but i trust him wholeheartedly; he definitely has a gift (even if he does swear like a sailor sometimes and always has 2CH on).

and although i might be a tough (half) Aussie sheila, i did still need the ice cream afterwards - i felt a little woozy. but i did sleep very well last night for the first time in ages.