Per my chiropractor’s advice, I went to visit a med­ical doc­tor Fri­day morn­ing… except mine was out until today, so I saw the nurse prac­ti­tioner.  Long story short, she thinks I’ve rapidly devel­oped sco­l­io­sis.  And she thinks this rapid change in my lower back is caus­ing my mid-to-upper back to pull to the right.  Or some­thing like that.  She says it’s hered­i­tary (even though none of my fam­ily has it).  And she says noth­ing can be done (even though she rec­om­mended two treatments).

The first treat­ment is one my chi­ro­prac­tor rec­om­mended nearly a decade ago, for another ail­ment with sim­i­lar symp­toms.  It’s herbal, help­ful and heav­enly in its effec­tive­ness.  But I’ll talk more about it in a later post.

The sec­ond treat­ment is the Flec­tor Patch.  And it seems to be work­ing.  Best I can tell, and based on what she explained, it’s an anti-inflammatory patch for injuries, sprains, gnarly bruises, and the like.  It’s super sticky on one side, fuzzy on the other, and about 4“x6”.  You sim­ply put it over the inflamed (or, in this case super-painful) area and it works its magic.  You wear the patch for 12 hours, then take if off for 12 hours, and so on.

The first day I didn’t notice a sig­nif­i­cant impact… Jenni Prokopy, the Founder and Editrix of Chron­icBabe, had a sim­i­lar expe­ri­ence.   I did, how­ever, notice it felt kinda warm and a bit tingly.  The sec­ond day I felt more flex­i­ble and less stiff in my mid back.  Ini­tially I thought this may have hap­pened any­way, that per­haps my back had decided to get bet­ter.  But, dur­ing the 12 hours between wear­ing the patch I notice my back grows more stiff and the pain increases.   So I know the patch is pro­vid­ing relief.  Today was the third day, and I am offi­cially a fan of the Flec­tor Patch.  It is con­ve­nient and side-effect-free (thus far), but I am wor­ried about the cost.  The nurse prac­ti­tioner pro­vided me with over a week’s worth of sam­ples, and each came with a $30 off coupon.  Appar­ently these suck­ers are pricey.  But I’ve learned, and con­tinue to learn, no price is too high for mobil­ity.  And I con­tinue to be grate­ful for my HSA.

Stay tuned.  I will let you know what my final ver­dict is regard­ing the Flec­tor Patch.  As for Jenni, she said short-term use of the patch solved a tricky pain issue.  I hope my expe­ri­ence is as effec­tive as hers.  And I pray the Flec­tor Patch improves my con­di­tion quick enough to pre­vent a fibromyal­gia flare.