Progress=Three Weeks Between Chiropractic Visits

I LOVE Dr. Amy, and in part it's because I don't have to see her as much any more. That may sound strange, but I was on weekly visits for awhile there, and she was using every trick in her bag, including sending me home with kinesiotape to have my husband apply when the stuff she put on fell off.

Markers I'm not entirely sure I've made a big deal out of yet, but really need to put down as it's been nearly a year now.

1) No longer need pain medication to take care of basic day-to-day needs (laundry, dishes, etc.). (Crap. Can no longer use back pain as an excuse for not doing them.)

2) No longer need pain medication to exercise.

3) No longer need pain medication after exercise (occasionally Aleve though).

4) Can exercise enough to get my heart rate into a training zone.

5) Can run a 5K! (When I started, I couldn't do a .5K.)

6) Have given away clothes that are too big and had to purchase smaller clothes. (Not as much of this occurring as I would like, but compared to when I started, this is still progress.)

7) Have competed in a total of four actual athletic events.

8) Need to visit Dr. Amy less frequently.

9) Have actual days where I forget I have/had back issues.

10) Different (and still improving) mental outlook.

Today marks three weeks since my last visit to Dr. Amy. The even more interesting part (other than it's the longest stretch I've managed), is that it felt like more of a "maintenance" visit as opposed to a NEED visit. Before I could almost graph my pain scale and function scale in correlation with the visits. Day of visit, slightly better, day after way better, day 3 holding, day 4 hold/slight decline, day 5-7 gradual decline, although usually not worse than my previous visit (although sometimes the same). Now, instead of days, these are more like weeks, and I went in before I hit the decline point.

My daughter was very interested in "helping" on this visit and spent much of her time sitting on me and "massaging" me. So sweet. Not terribly effective, but sweet.

On the way home, I stopped at the Kaiser office. Of course, the first thing out of my daughter's mouth was, "I don't want a shot!"

Since that's what we were there for and the anticipation is usually worse for her, I actually just kept my mouth shut. Amazingly, the meltdown was not nearly the magnitude of the last one, which was a relief.

I'd planned on going to the park where my friend and I hike but this was the last Mom coffee of the school year and I just crave time where I get to talk to grownups other than my husband. Plus my friend had bailed on me.

Not much accomplished today, but it was nice that even my doctor can see the difference in my progress and abilities.