Right. All this blogging and sitting hunched over reading everyone and everything I can isn’t good. I’ve had back and neck and shoulder problems since… God, donkeys’ ages ago, and it’s gotten worse in the last 6 months or so.

Why yes, that coincides with beginning the blog. Never mind that now.

Stress just makes it worse. The day after getting back from the California trip where the long massage I’d had made everything feel great, my back started to tighten up and I got those warning twinges in the side of my neck and between my shoulder blades. Yep, pretty much the first morning at work, I was hurting again. Stress.

It’s not terribly painful, but it’s an “on the edge” kind of ache; the kind where if I turn the wrong way, or even get badly startled, I’ll get a neck spasm. Which is not good, because the last really bad one I had kept me off work for a couple of days and required a trip to the doctor for an adjustment (he’s an orthopedist). And this means getting all bent up like a pretzle.

The other day I discovered that there’s a chiropractor/massage therapy practice nearby, and decided to go in for an evaluation. Turns out that something I was told years ago was true – my right leg is slightly longer than my left. And this throws all the muscles and joints on the left side off, in an attempt to compensate. It looks like I’ll be going to the chiropractor at least a couple of times a month, but on the upside each visit comes with a 20 minute massage.

I had a free trial massage last night that was just 10 minutes.

Let me tell you, that was the longest 10 minutes of my life (in a good way). My neck, shoulders and the small of my back got worked over pretty good. The masseur was a very strong young guy – kind of weird not having a female massage therapist, but given how much schedule meshes with theirs, I think I’ll continue with the guy.

He had knuckles like rocks, and he seemed to know exactly where all the knots were in my shoulders and at the base of my spine. Oy. OW. However, I can tell it helps.

I’ll be unlearning some old bad habits… slouching! Stop slouching! Or I’ll end up with that tech-worker’s hump thing, which we don’t want.