I know I talk frequently about how much I love chiropractic, and I thank you for listening to me babble, but right now I have a story to share about what happened yesterday with our oldest and how chiropractic care supported her.
We have a very alive, strong and energetic daughter of 9 in her first year of public school. She is so courageous and willing and determined to give this transition her all … but I tell you, being cooped up inside for recess (in their classroom no less) all last week didn’t do any of them good. Yesterday, during recess, she injured her neck.
She described it as she was going down the tube slide. It was slippery because there was snow in it and she was wearing her snow pants like every other cool kid who actually plays in the snow during recess. With the slide being extra slick, it bounced her around more than she expected and when she landed, instead of landing on her feet, she came to an abrupt stop an inch below the end of the slide where the snow had become packed and hardened. As she landed she looked to her right and immediately had her breath taken away and thought she was going to pass out.
The playground supervisor walked her to the door but she walked to the nurses office by herself thinking she was either going to throw up or faint from the pain. When I asked why she didn’t tell the supervisor she needed help, she said she was crying too hard to say anything.
My husband picks her up and she can’t walk by the time they get home-she’s white as a ghost and just sobbing. I instantly called SuNu Wellness to see if we couldn’t come in right then as an emergency, so we were in within the hour.
After being looked at by Dr. Liz, she determined Sunny had seriously strained her paraspinal muscles, including the levator and trap and suggested only a side-lying position to hold her spine in alignment, along with ice and another visit tomorrow. Because she had no rotation left, she suggested the activator method, which worked to bring about some rotation.
By the time we got home Sunny said she was in so much pain that “it makes me feel like a half mashed mosquito,” to which I had to half laugh/smile. We were getting somewhere with the pain!
So we have been icing, applying light massage, taking arnica, rubbing arnica gel into her neck and shoulders, and just making her comfortable. Tonight I ran a bath for her, hoping to calm her into sleep, and did craniosacral therapy on her, gaining full rotation while she’s on the table, but losing it again when she tries to stand.
She won’t be going to school tomorrow, but will be home resting, sleeping, healing, getting more bodywork, and visiting the chiropractor again for follow-up care as needed.
Here’s what I love about chiropractic. Our chiropractors know us so well that when stuff like this comes up, they know how to best handle it, and maybe even more importantly, they know how to work with the delicate emotional state Sunny is in when something like this happens.
