I like homemade gifts. I like to receive them. I like to give them. And, not surprisingly, I like to make them, especially for Christmas. So in October, my sister Lisa and I try to find gifts that we can make for our daughters. We each have three, two biological and one in-law/love or close to it. One year Lisa found a beautiful pattern for a crocheted sweater. It was lovely. Last year I found a wonderfully easy crocheted blanket. It was very pretty and extremely monotonous and I was pretty sure, by the time we were done that Lisa was plotting my murder. She made three blankets. I don’t know why, but I got “hooked” (get it, crochet… ‘hooked’). I made six. Yup, six. One for each daughter, one for my granddaughter, and one for each of my parents. Six.

By the end of it all, I noticed that I had some discomfort in the right side of my neck and my right shoulder. Not one to make a big deal of things, I started sleeping on a neck roll, which was much more comfortable, and pretty much ignored it.

My first indication that something was a muck was with my handwriting. I’ve always liked my handwriting, which is actually just printing. Last July it looked like this…

Pretty nice, right? By this past February it looked like this…

I had tremors in my hand, but ONLY when I was writing. It was uncontrollable and kind of weird. So, I did the only thing that made sense. I Googled symptoms of a brain tumor, because I always like to think of the most pleasant things first.

1. Headaches…Only when I’m tired, so No.
2. Unexplained nausea or vomiting…No.
3. Blurred or double vision…No.
4. Loss of peripheral vision…No.
5. Gradual loss of sensation in an arm or leg…No.

I was pretty satisfied that I did not have a brain tumor.

I knew a Dr. would put me through a barrage of uncomfortable tests and prescribe drugs. I don’t do well with drugs and nobody likes uncomfortable tests so, I talked to my oily (she sells them), hippy, daughter-in-love, she suggested a chiropractor.

I went to one recommended by family members and told him my list of symptoms, which had now increased.

• Hand tremor only when I write.
• Discomfort in my wrist.
• Pain in my neck (Not that I am one, just that I have one. Okay, okay, both.) all on my right side.

I told them that I was pretty sure I had a pinched nerve in my neck because I had Googled my symptoms and we all know Google is never wrong.

They took x-rays and pictures, and they did a thermo-scan, which showed inflammation in my neck.  My husband and I went back the next day for the x-ray results and a consultation.

I did NOT have a pinched nerve in my neck. ALL of the nerves in my neck were pinched. EVERY::SINGLE::ONE. I now make visits to the chiropractor three times a week. I do exercises at home for my neck and my spine, which was slowly swaying to the left, and my hand whose tremors are the direct result of the pinched nerves and not a brain tumor.

In the first week, the pain in my neck was all but gone. In the second week, my shoulders were level. By the third week, my handwriting began to improve. I probably don’t have to tell you, I am now hooked on more than just crocheting. There is a sign in the chiropractor’s office that is my new mantra. The POWER that Made the Body Heals the Body ~ B.J. Palmer

Just a little something to make you smile, on a recent chiropractic visit, while wearing leggings, I felt an updraft and realized I had 6 little holes in my pants 3 on each side right along the seam on my thighs. I sat with my feet flat on the floor and my legs together that day. I’m sure it’s better for your back; but then it’s really not that big a deal.