The Diagnosis (updated)

I have a pretty messed up back...but nothing the chiropractor can't fix.  YAY!!  I was worried that I might need to have surgery because my back hurt me so bad sometimes.  Here are a couple of x-rays I found online (my dr. office just got the software to start uploading x-rays to the computer so hopefully I'll be able to post mine before too long) that are similar to what mine looked like.  The major difference is that my spine is curving the opposite direction...scroll down to the title Second Appointment with Dr. W and ignore the first picture in that post :)  Also, my lower back is more curved than my upper back, where this person's upper back is curved more than their lower back. 

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d104/flmworld/IMG_7936.jpg&imgrefurl=http://getbackinline.wordpress.com/2009/06/&usg=__xDvlvKT3uYisspPtq1nI1HB20SA=&h=320&w=265&sz=28&hl=en&start=58&um=1&tbnid=ZmX6Dm0WjhN-bM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dspine%2Bcurvature%2Bx-rays%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D54%26um%3D1

He told me that although I was having mostly upper back pain, the root of the issue is my lower back.  My lower back was curving and over time my upper spine had to start curving to compensate for my lower spine.  On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the slightest curve he sees, 10 being the worst curve he sees, my upper back is about a 3 and my lower is about a 7.  YIKES!  The good news is that my bones are healthy and the discs appear to be normal as well.  Also, the side view of my spine shows an "almost textbook perfect" curve.  It's just the front/back view that shows a curvature.  He went ahead and started more treatment today.  Now that he knows exactly what my spine looks like, he's starting to move it back where it belongs.   We'll go through 6-8 adjustments followed by that same treatment they did yesterday with the electrical pulses to the muscles (to relax them) with moist heat therapy.  After that, he'll continue with adjustments and add on some physical therapy and start using the traction table.  We didn't talk about how long the treatment is supposed to last, but he did say that I'll start to physically feel better after about 14 treatments.  I HAVE TO WAIT THAT LONG?!!?  :)  I'm interested to see how all this goes!  I can tell you that last night I could tell the muscles in my back had been relaxed just from the electric pulses/moist heat therapy they did.  I was in bed, took a REALLY deep breath and my back popped RIGHT where I've been trying to get it to pop for MONTHS now.  That kind of sold me on the chiropractor right there :)

I go back again on Friday so I'll keep you posted!