I stood there gobsmacked. I had no reflexes.

Have you ever done a test where the doctor or physician taps your knee and your nervous system produces and automatic response where you lower leg kicks upwards? It is called the knee-jerk reflex and I didn’t’ have one on either leg. My Chiropractor also checked the reflexes of my elbows using the same test. Nothing. Somewhere along the line my peripheral nervous system wasn’t functioning optimally.

Ok, so I failed one test, but I’ll pass the next one right? I stood in the room with my arms straight out in front of my body. With my eyes closed I was told to march on the spot for a count of 50, bringing my knees to hip height with each step (best not to try this at home). Easy right? I opened my eyes expecting to see the chiropractor standing in front of me, I honestly felt like I hadn’t moved an inch. I was shocked to realize I was marching towards the opposite side of the room!! You see, when you close your eyes, your body relies solely on the central nervous system for guidance, and mine was way off!

Additional tests also revealed that my left leg was longer than my right leg and that my hips were rotated out of place. To no surprise, further tests also revealed that my muscles around these affected areas of my spine were under great strain. The Chiropractor then took some X-rays and the results shocked me yet again. I had no neck curve (or curve of the cervical spine). My neck was straight as an arrow. As a result, my head sat so far in front of the centerline of my body, that by the law of physics, it weighed 35kg as opposed to the standard 5kg (hold a bowling ball close to your chest and then hold it with your arms straight out in front of your body and you will know what I mean). As you can imagine, this was placing a great deal of strain on my spine and to top it all off, part of my spine was suffering from phase 2 degeneration (there a total of 3 stages). I sat there staring at my X-rays, how could I have phase 2 degeneration? I was only 26!

As I sat there my chiropractor started listing all the areas that these “jams” in my spine and nervous system correlated to internally.  At that point I realized that those “normal” niggles I had intermittently experienced, were my body’s way of communicating the various problems with my structure, I just never stopped and listened. Yes, even I was guilty of ignoring my body’s own little cries for help. All I knew from that moment on, that I was ready to get started ASAP. That fear of bone crunching/cracking/popping had disappeared. I wanted to give myself every chance going forward.

You can read part 3 of this post here.