Did they check your leg length?
Member
Second opinion on chiropractor’s assessment
I went and saw the chiropractor today, first time I’ve ever been to a chiropractor. I’ve been experiencing some sciatic nerve aggravation again recently and my arms have been falling asleep at night more than normal.
They took some x-rays of my lumbar lateral, and anterior. From the anterior view it appears the right side of my pelvis is tilted 14 mm lower than the left (their measurement), causing some spine misalignment. She said it was due to the psoas muscle on one side being tighter than the other.
On the lateral x-ray it appears L3, L4, L5 are starting to compress and bulging the discs, causing the sciatic nerve pain. I wasn’t real clear on if she was saying it’s only bulging laterally, or posteriorly as well. Also I noticed while they were taking the xrays my right leg muscles were slightly tense, I wonder if that made the xray look worse than it actually is.
I haven’t had any serious injuries except breaking my clavicle and hitting the side of my head by coming over my handle bars in my mountain bike about 7 years ago, and around 3 years ago I flipped a 4wheeler and landed on my head and received a concussion, I’m not sure if that caused any spinal compression.
She hinted at weight lifting possibly causing spinal compression, which I don’t see how that would be possible.
She is going to give me a list of “exercises” to “strengthen” the lumbar region once I get a few more adjustments. The exercises were typical medicine ball things… Am I crazy for thinking weak lumbar muscles aren’t an issue if I can deadlift ~400lbs?
My goals at this point are to, fix the pelvic tilt so the sciatic nerve stops hurting, and prevent/reverse any disc issues.
TMPHBITEU
Did they check your leg length?
Member
No. Though I've never had a leg injury so it'd have to be hereditary if that's possible.
TMPHBITEU
They observed a 1.7cm asymmetry and did not check for the most obvious, most common cause of the problem. Instead, they attributed it to a tight psoas muscle. Do not pay their bill, and go somewhere else.
Member
The only other possibility is I don't understand how they "measure". There were no instruments used to determine leg length, while laying face down they did check to see if my legs lined up, so maybe they did measure?
TMPHBITEU
You just have to make a decision based on reviews and personal recommendations from people you trust or an overwhelming quantity of positive impressions. Stupid bullshit disqualifies even in the presence of good reviews, IMO.Originally Posted by King of the Jews
They would have leveled your pelvis first, and then checked the relative positions of your knees and your ankles. Assuming this was a standard standing chiropractic X-ray, your pelvis is significantly out of level with no curve between the ilia/L4-S1. I say you have a short leg. But I could be wr...
Member
Did you pass out before you could get that last word out? Haha.
I'm fortunate with my chiropractor, he thinks that weightlifting is a good thing and doesn't mind me going heavy. Hell, he's even the one to point out the study that showed weightlifting is significantly safer than most other physical activities before I saw it here.
I'd recommend asking a new chiro their thoughts on strength training during an initial consult to weed out any bullshit. That's one of the reasons I just switched GP's. The old one was against any weight training of significant weight, but he did recommend bosu balls and medicine balls for core strengthening. Ok guy.
Member
Well from seeing how they did my wife's adjustment they rocked the pelvis back and forth (to relax it I assume) and then checked ankle alignment. When I think of measure generally instruments are involved.
I've already paid for the initial consultation and xray so followup visits are significantly cheaper. I have an appointment tomorrow, I'll ask them how they know it's not a leg length discrepancy. My right psoas was sore immediately after the adjustment, which I forgot about but several years ago it was hurting quite a bit, I drove a lot at the time and thought it might have been from sitting on my wallet.. I never put it in my back pocket now.
Honestly right now I don't care about the occasional pain or anything else, I just don't want anything to worsen as I age. The chiropractor made it sound like I had a lot of compression on my lower lumbar, at some point I would need decompression therapy and my discs were going to (possibly, eventually) herniate if I don't fix the problem.
Member
The last time I had a chiro take X-rays, it was done sitting down, which I assume was done to remove the variable of leg length? My hips were still slightly crooked. I was told to sit naturally but sit up with "good posture".
He then had me stand on one of those power plates with different weights (1 or 2 pounds) hanging off various parts of my body.
Went to him twice a week for about 3 months (insurance covered everything so I figured why not). This was all pre-knowledge of SS.
Surprisingly (to me at the time! not to anyone here I'm sure), after about 6-8 weeks of doing SS, the issues I originally went to him for (hip pain and shoulder pain) went away. I stopped going to him and now I'm stronger, much healthier and in much less pain.
I do think chiros are useful for an adjustment here. PTs are a complete waste of time unless you have a very serious injury you're recovering from (surgery or something) and you need help walking and that sort of thing... I wasted an entire year at the PT before I went to the chiro! The PT had me move up from 1lb dumbells to 8lb though... linear progression?
TMPHBITEU
Ha.
He can tell this from the X-rays? See my original response.The chiropractor made it sound like I had a lot of compression on my lower lumbar, at some point I would need decompression therapy and my discs were going to (possibly, eventually) herniate if I don't fix the problem.
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