cracking and popping

so i went to the chiropractor on thursday because my back is still not feeling great from my accident 2 weeks ago. he takes x-rays. pushes around a little but not too much cause he wants to see xrays to make sure nothing is seriously wrong.  yesterday i return and he show me my x-rays (wow my hips are HUGE when projected onto a large screen!) anyway i have a fracture in my lower back which of course they don't really know if its from the accident or it was there before. but more important than that, i definitely have longer term lower back issues. by body has learned to compensate so significantly for my back weakness that i actually have one hip that is higher that the other. my muscles that connect the spine with everything else are all compressed and tight. all of the sudden, everything started making sense. i have never been able to do like ab exercises where you balence on your butt - like scissor kicks or bicycles etc - which i thought was because of a broken tailbone when i fell off a horse in like 8th grade. and my lower back always hurt when i ran but i thought it was from all the extra weight and skin pulling down on it. after my lower body lift, it still hurt the same so i just figured i was still too fat there. i also had a bout of sciatica a few years ago. my trainer has been telling me for 3 years how one side of my body is so much weaker than the other and that i do this weird thing called winging whenever i do upper back exercises, which is how my body compensates for weakness in my upper back by having my shoulders come forward.  anyway, i am a mess! he says no running anytime soon and when i do get back to  it to never run on a treadmill cause they are really bad for your back. he gave me lots of neck and back exercises to do at home every day and i will be seeing him twice a week to be cracked and popped, which is totally scary.  it just so funny how we rationalize thigns to ourselves. in all my years, i never ever would have thought to go to a doctor or chiropractor for any of these issues. who'd have thunk i actually have a legit reason for not being able to do physical things?

wow!  You're not kidding that is weird!  A co-worker's hubby had that and it was a mind blower as well - no way to know how long he had walked around like that. I have a comment - if you were my daughter i would urge you to see an ortho doc before any chiropractor would crack that back. Not that I would want you to do surgery, except as a last resort. Just go to get that perspective, then decide how you want to proceed. Be careful - says mom LOL

Wow, Andrea.  That's quite a lot to absorb isn't it?  You know, you are so right.  We justify so many things because we are fat.  We make excuses for every single ailment, always blaming it on our weight.  But that's not completely our fault, you know?  So many doctors will attribute any of our ailments to our being fat as well. I think now that we are on the other side we have done such damage to our bodies that we STILL justify it.  I know my knees will never be the same, and after an operation on each of them i just accept them for how they are.  We adjust, we compensate and we move on. Sheesh, whoever said that we are fat and lazy?  If they only knew!!! Good luck and keep us informed.  You are much too young to be dealing with crap like that!!!!

Yup, yup, Donna!  I have a friend who asks her doctor:  what would your diagnosis be if i were not fat?  I suppose the doctor's pride might smart a bit, but perhaps there could be a way to ask it and let him/her know that at times, blaming obesity for every darn thing can be a cop out. Yes, we should all be thinner, but fat people can be healthy within certain paramters.

Andrea, I am so sorry to hear that, but I do agree with Neecee you need to go an see a specialist.  That being said...I go to the chripractor more than I go to any other dr.  Mine is so awesome, and he is the one who usually refers me to the specialist to make sure there are no underlying problems.  I go probably 5 or 6 times a year.  It's great.

I later realized that an MRI scan can tell how approximately how old that break is - my DH has a fracture that has been determined to been there for quite a while. There will be calcification or not, and a new clean break looks completely different.  

Oh man!  That's terrible!  I feel for you! I remember you started the couch to 5k program and now you're finding out you have to quit too. It was a disappointment for me with my knees. I wonder what else might be wrong with me.  I should probably see more professionals about my various aches and pain because you're right, you never know what it might be and you shouldn't self-diagnose. Tell us how that cracking and popping goes.   You're the guinea pig now!  I've always wanted to go to a chiropractor but like many other people I'm scared of them. :)