Question
Happy Face
I am in early 60s Originally, went to chiropractor as getting some stiffness in lumbar-sacral region with tight muscles in buttock area five months ago. He adjusted me and pain went away. Started getting same feeling again little less than a month ago, especially when I wake up in morning, so I went last Friday, 8/29. After adjusting my neck also, two days later my right side of neck felt sore, stiff, with some cracking sound. I sit at computer a lot and also because of heat, have had the air conditioner going in bedroom as I am in Southern California. I also have a German Shepherd and noticed he was pulling me when walking last night a bit. It is hard for me to lay in bed and be quiet, although I put some heat menthol rub on both areas and it helped ease the discomfort, after icing my neck when first waking up this morning. The pain in lower spine, or stiffness didn't go away on the last visit. I called him and he told me not unusual after neck adjustment the discomfort, which I never experienced before going to him in past 15 years, on and off, Also, on August 26th a SUV slightly bumped back of my VW Bug, not a bit of damage to bumper, just tapped it when I was stopped, and no pain in the neck region. No foreword thrust with head back and forth. I told him everything is okay and didn't bother to get his name and number.
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Hello S.,
I抦 sorry to hear about your experience with your adjustment. Unfortunately, this can happen every now and then after an adjustment for a variety of reasons. The most common side effect of an adjustment is either headache or soreness in the area of the adjustment. It抯 more common to be sore the longer it has been since your previous adjustment. The difficult thing about any sort of manual therapy such as adjustment and massage is there are a lot of individual variations that the practitioner has no control over. The practitioner may over-treat. The patient may already be too inflamed in the area. It could be a combination of things where the adjustment tweaked a ligament or muscle just a bit too much along with some other factor affecting the patient, such as sleeping incorrectly that night. The list could go on. There are just too many factors to consider to really know why you抮e sore, especially after this adjustment and not prior adjustments in the past 15 years you抳e been going to your chiropractor.
You might want to make an appointment with the chiropractor and have him evaluate your neck just to make sure everything is ok. Even though you called him, tell him you think the soreness came after the adjustment. If it has resolved by the time you read this, then there really is no need to make an appointment unless you would still like to be evaluated. Though you and the chiropractor may not want another neck adjustment this time, he may be able to help you get through the achy phase with some muscle work and gentle physiotherapy modalities. If the adjustment tweaked anything, the gentle treatments will help with the pain and get you feeling yourself much quicker. If your pain is severe and unlike any pain you抳e ever felt before, be sure to inform him.
In the meantime, it抯 a good idea to keep the ice on your neck unless he tells you to use heat. (He will know which is better for your situation).
Again, my apologies for the discomfort, and hopefully you抮e already feeling better by the time you read this.
Dr. J.R. Strecker, D.C.
