After 20 years...

I have dealt with severe, debilitating upper back pain for more than 20 years now.

Right between my shoulder blades is where I feel the pain.

It started, for no apparent reason, in my early 20s.

I didn't injure myself or have anything to blame it on.

It just started.

It has no rhyme or reason. Nothing 'causes' it & nothing keeps it away either.

I can exercise or not. Stretch or not. Be tired. Be rested. Be over weight. Be under weight (HA!). Whatever.

I will be fine one minute & the next I can feel it coming on & within 10 minutes it hurts so bad I want to cry.

Before I discovered ibuprofen it was awful.

Most times ibuprofen will mask it.

If I am at home & can lay on an ice pack that will usually stop it.

I have been to chiropractors.

I have been to medical doctors.

They have prescribed pain killers.

One guy gave me some stretches to try.

One guy thought it was a sprain...um, okay dude, a sprain for 20 years???


No one has ever given me diagnosis, a reason for my pain.

Until now.

Saturday, at our parade we had a wee bit of reckless driving with our float & one of the results was my lower back getting jammed.

I could feel the discs compress :P

By that night all the pain was in my right hip & I could barely move with out crying.

So Monday morning my husband hauled me into his chiropractor.

We talked about my injury & how it happened & he started to examine me.

In the course of our discussion we brought up my "usual" upper back pain.

He felt my spine, asked a couple question & in less than 2 minutes gave me a reason for my pain.

A diagnosis.

I have scoliosis.

Not severe, not needing a brace or surgery but enough to cause pain.

He starts explaining the curve (which my husband has told me for years I had but no doctor every caught it)
& explaining what kind of pain I deal with (spot on) & the things that will work for relief  (he mentioned stretching the spine over a ball or hanging from a bar. All these years when it was really bad I would hang from the doorway for temporary relief). 


Everything he said was just right on the money.

After he popped my hip back in (which by the way was WAY less painful than the last guy) he showed my husband an easy maneuver to stretch my upper spine & ease my pain.

He also said that he can do adjustments to keep the pain away.

Oh. My.

20 years of misery & he nailed it in 2 minutes.


I heart our chiropractor.

He is so smart & so awesome.

If I weren't madly in love with my husband I would have proposed on the spot. (His wife probably wouldn't have appreciated that either).

I am just so impressed & so pleased & so thankful to finally have an answer.

So if you are in Northern California go see the folks at Masula Chiropractic.


They rock.

Blessings.