What to Expect on Your Chiropractic Journey
If you’ve never been to a chiropractor before, you may think the visit involves a quick adjustment, and then you’ll be sent on your way. At SouthSide Chiropractic, we take our time with practice members to get to know their case history, which is their initial complaint, and their life history, to see if the issue is related to other things.
Looking at the Body as a Whole
Let’s say you have a shoulder problem; if that’s the case, you will also usually have a problem with your neck, posture, and rib cage expansion. “Your shoulder pain can be related to other things in the body, so one of the things we do as chiropractors is look at the body as a whole versus the part you come in with,” said Dr. Don.
Providing Objective Evaluations
In addition to getting a case history, we need to do an objective evaluation, where we will check your range of motion. Often will do scans on the spine to see how your nervous system works. The heart rate variability (HRV) scan we use tells us if your body is in a state of protection or stress.
Sometimes we send for X-rays, because those help us be a little more specific when we adjust. And also gives us some history of what shape your spine has been in over the years.
The Importance of Reevaluations
We also provide reevaluations. How you feel is subjective, but how you function is objective. While we want you to feel better, we want you to improve your function along the way.
How You Might Feel After Your Adjustment
Often when they get their first adjustment, people say they feel lighter, more relaxed, and their tension has decreased. You may have a little better posture immediately after the adjustment, and a better range of motion in your spine.
It’s not uncommon to feel a little stiff the day after your adjustment, a feeling that’s similar to what you’d experience after a workout at the gym, because the spine is moving more.
Not a ‘One-and-Done’
Just like one workout at the gym won’t help you get fit, it takes more than a single chiropractic adjustment to improve your function and health. There are many micro-steps you have to go through in the healing process to get to the end destination.
We are here to help you get there. Contact us today to get started!