Monday, March 8, 2010

My Ravelympics injury: Back Man to the rescue.

Apparently, Olympians aren't the only ones who suffer from injuries. It seems that the "Ravelympics" competition on ravelry.com, and my mad dash to the knitting finish line, has brought on that most dreaded of knitting injuries.

Hello, Knitter's Neck.

I woke up a couple days after finishing my Gypsy cardigan with a crick. This was not just your usual stiff neck. I couldn't turn to check my blind spot in traffic. Every turn of the head was excruciating. And without realizing it, I was holding my whole torso funny. Remember Joan Cusack with the back brace in "Sixteen Candles"?

And okay, several days in a row of kamikazi "cardio tennis" probably didn't help either.

So I called up Dr. Tyler Bachman, who has treated me for a couple of minor tennis-related snafus in the past. Dr. Bachman is a chiropractor who specializes in sports-related injuries. (Isn't it funny his name is like "Back Man?" What a coincidence, kind of like those Brander people who specialize in branding!)


He was quite embarrassed when I made him pose for this picture, and also a picture of an article he just had published:


Unlike other chiropractors I've encountered, there is not an ounce of sleaze to be found in Dr. Bachman. There's no long, drawn-out drama. He finds the problem, he fixes the problem. Plus, he's a super nice guy with an equally super nice wife and new baby (the baby may be modeling for our next Hot Loops wall, if I can talk them into it!)

Anyhow, Dr. Bachman took x-rays and pictures don't lie. Here is the curvature of a normal neck:


And here's me:


Clearly, all of those late nights spent hunching over picot edging have taken their toll.

If this seems familiar, you may want to give this treatment a try. It's really not as scary as it sounds. First, you go into a little room where this nice person hooks pads to your affected area, and you get to lie on the "roll-y table" that gives your back a wonderful kneading.


Then, you head to Dr. Bachman's office, where he very gently adjusts you, then takes the extra step of working your muscles in unique ways to loosen them up. I was a little sore the first day, but the next day - voila! - the Sixteen Candles effect was gone.

Dr. Bachman even sent me a text the next day to make sure I was doing ok. He did the same for my husband (rotator cuff), my sister (sciatica) and a colleague (getting fixed up before a skiing trip). Everybody is on the mend! Life is good!

Time to start training for Ravelympics 2014 :)

- Shelley
shop online at loopsknitting.com

1 Comments:

Blogger cassidy ann said...

Yikes! Wouldn't it be great to have a room with a margarita machine and one of those roll-y tables..right next to each other of course! Glad you're feeling better, seeing that blind spot is kinda vital.

March 9, 2010 at 7:12 AM  

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