Posted by Michelle (205.188.200.27) on September 30, 1999 at 15:03:45:
After reading my husbands last post I got to thinking that there is one more thing that I feel needs to be mentioned. I see that Larry is not the only one that has had relief from his clusters with treatments from a chiropractor. I also see that there are some that really value there chiropractor and what he has done for them, but it has not taken away there cluster attacks. What concerns me the most, however, are the posts I read about people that have visited a D.C. and say that they left feeling worse than what they did before they went. I feel it is very important to let you know that Larry too was the subject of some very bad chiropractic visits before he found the right ones. Sadly enough the first 3 chiropractors that Larry visited actually had no idea about clusters and just started "cracking" before they even made a plan of treatment. Never was an x-ray taken in those offices, and he like some of you left in much pain with a cluster headache to boot. We moved to a different state and Larry was experiencing terrible back pain. He decided to give the chiropractor in town a try to take his back pain away. This visit unlike the rest was one of discovery, and now it has been 6 years since he had a cluster cycle. First of all he recieved a free consultation where the Doctor took much time going over any concerns Larry had with the care he would receive, and answered all of his questions. Already we could tell that the whole focus on care for the patient was different. The next step was x-rays, as well as an EMG scan. There is really no way, in my opinion, that a D.C. would be able to set up a correct plan of treatment without them. If they don't do this find a different D.C. You need to find a doctor that deals with full spectrum care, one who will talk to you, without getting defensive, about any questions that you may have, and one that will set up a plan of treatment to be followed in order to correct anything found in the examination. You then need to follow that recommended treatment...very, very, important. Like Larry had mentioned before it was 4 weeks into treatment before he had complete relief from his cluster headaches. Our spine does have a tendency to go back to the way it had been for so many years. Once a month visits after your last treatment day are necessary to make sure that you are staying in alignment. This is where Larry made his last mistake. He thought that he was cured and he had no more pain, but the clusters returned 8 months after treatment because he neglected to go back once a month. However, he ran back to the chiropractor once a cluster hit and they stopped again immediately. There is an excellent site for those of you intersted in reading more about chiropractic care, and it also has a search engine to find a chiropractor in your area. From what I have read on this site I would guess that any one of the doctors listed would do full spectrum care. Just like any other decision please choose wisely. Good luck to all in their battle for pain free days.
Michelle