Update about my chiropractic experiences in St. Cloud...

Well, today is my fourth day here in St. Cloud (well, actually Kingston :)) for chiropractic treatment for my scoliosis. Monday morning was mostly full of x-rays and talking through what would happen over the next two weeks, then in the afternoon I went through all the 'exercises', met all the staff, and got familiar with it and also met a few other patients. He also gave me a list of things I couldn't do/eat; cross my legs: it throws your hips out of balance or something like that, I don't exactly remember, I just remember the look he gave me when forget and cross them. Sleep on my stomach: your head has to turn so you can breath and that really messes up your spine. I can't eat processed foods (sugar, salt, meat with hormones in it, pasteurized milk which actually strips the calcium out of your bones so it's better not to drink milk than drink pasteurized milk. no greasy foods, food with MSG, nothing like French fries and 'NO McDonalds!' (of course he has to eliminate that! :-/) pretty much everything I'm used to doing/ love to eat is taken out. At first I thought it would be hard, but staying here at Charlie and Barb Hendrickson's is a good thing, Barb is very health conscious so they don't eat a whole lot of sweets and grease anyways and she uses a lot of natural/organic things so that's nice.
Tuesday, Wednesday and today (Thursday) have been full days,. Get to the office at 8:00 AM, (we usually get there half an hour early and sit in the car 'cause Rachael's so anxious not to be late ;)) sign in, go through the 5 'exercises' (maybe 45 minutes?) upstairs, get adjusted by Dr. Woggon, (15-30 depending on how long you have to wait for him), then downstairs there are 4 different things we do and that takes about an hour. So around 10:15-10:30 AM I'm done for the morning, get a 2-1/2 hour break and start all over at 1:00 PM. The car ride home I talk Rachael's ear off about what who said and what happened! (Thanks for enduring Rachael! ;))
Besides myself there are four other scoliosis patients currently that come in daily. McKayla is 13. She's adopted, home-schooled, short, blond and not afraid to give her opinion, but she's really sweet and a lot of fun! Emily is a little more quiet than McKayla but is also 13, I haven't really gotten to know her but she seems nice. Bridie is 17, pretty outgoing and sweet. Then there is Doug! Everyone picks on Doug! He's middle aged, single guy who lives in CA, he used to work for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network but now works for himself, he writes cartoons I guess. He loves to talk, it seems like he's got a whole book worth of information on every subject and he can go on and on about it. Everyone gives him a hard time, he takes his time and is often late! But as much as he can be a bit annoying at times, he makes everyone laugh.
Also the staff are pretty awesome! Besides Dr. Woggon, there is Dr. Suyen Chong (Su) who reminds Rachael and I a lot of our good friend Sana Lattin, she's sweet, funny, calm and matter-of-fact. She's a comfortable person to be around. Margie (runs the front desk and does X-rays), she's pretty nice, she's older and seems a bit serious, I haven't really gotten to know her that well. The CN's are, Therese, she's married and has one daughter, she's only 42 I think. She acts younger though, she's really sweet and funny, and girly! =) During one of the things, we get strapped into a chair with a halter type thing on our head that's attached to a weight, we sit there 30 mins in the morning and afternoon so we watch a movie while doing that. The other day we were watching The Sound of Music. Therese LOVES that movie I guess so she would sing along to it and come skipping in between rooms singing the songs really loud, she's the type that seems to just be herself and is unaffected by other peoples opinions of her. I like her a lot! There's Stephanie, Stephanie's youngish has Jet black hair and is pretty thin, she's a lot like Therese I think except maybe a little less girly. She likes to eat healthy but not drink healthy, she HATES the taste of plain water so she puts Crystal Light flavor packets in it and tells Dr. Woggon she's drinking organic grape juice (says Therese ;)). She used to sneak in energy drinks and coffee (Dr. Woggon is quite strong in his opinions about eating healthy!). Stephanie's really sweet too! Amanda is probably in her 20's I'm guessing, she's kinda quiet and REALLY sweet and patient!! She's one of the prettiest girls I've seen too! Rachael says she's most likely ma-lotto, so she's got that perfect darker skin, brown eyes and curlyish black hair. She wasn't working on Monday so I met her on Tuesday, but I like her a lot!! So that's the staff.
I think my favorite part of the day is usually adjustments with Dr. Woggon. (despite the pain :-/ but it's not usually too awful) I was very set against liking him at first (before I met him) I didn't like his name, I didn't like the way he sounded over the phone (he sounds much different in person... or maybe I was just distorting his voice in my mind 'cause 'I didn't like him'), but he's absolutely hilarious!! He never stops moving, he says he never worries! Today he was adjusting a girl who comes in every other day for scoliosis treatment, in partition next to the one I was in, she was talking about worrying about things too much. He told her he never worried! He said 95% of the time people worry unnecessarily, so they lose 95%, he only loses 5% (the 5% he should have worried but he didn't because he never worries!). She said she thought it was a feminine trait, he thought about it a minute then came around the end and asked me 'Anna do you worry?' I kinda shrugged and told him I did sometimes and he's like 'You do? About what?' I told him, it depended and after thinking about it a moment longer, he went back to the other girl and told her she was right 'it must be a feminine trait.'
After finishing with her, he came to my part and just stood and looked at me for a minute, then he goes 'You worry?' as if it was a completely foreign thing! Dr. Woggon is never dull! He's always upbeat and positive and greets everyone with a cheerful 'goodmorning', he says Tuesdays and Thursdays he doesn't work, because those are his 'all scoliosis patients' days and he calls that 'play'. he's 61 but you could never tell, he's got so much bounce in his walk, and he's still full of boyish pranks, he loves to play practical jokes and come up behind people and surprise them, (he tried it on me, came up behind me while I was in the traction chair downstairs and poked me in the sides, he was disappointed when I didn't jump). Those 15 minutes or so he's adjusting me and his 'goodmornings' make my day.
When he found out we went to a Mennonite church, he was like 'Oh, I had some other Mennonite patients, and they brought me bread!' with a very meaningful look! So last night Rachael baked him a loaf of bread and to not leave out the other staff, she baked the most amazing cinnamon rolls with chocolate chips. When she gave them to Therese, Therese kinda screamed and jumped up and down, the talk of the morning was the amazing cinnamon rolls Rachael had baked! Rachael was embarrassed but I found it amusing.
Today I got an hour long massage. It was amazing really! McKayla and Emily didn't like it, Bridie she was sore afterwards, but liked it pretty well. I'm hoping I'm not too sore tomorrow. The massage lady, Rachael, was cool, and good at what she was doing.
So, the last four days have been good, different than what I expected, better than I expected, I'm really glad that I actually like everyone, and I actually look forwards to going and seeing everyone each day!
But anyways this is getting long and it's time for supper, so even though I could tell a million stories about everyone there I won't! =)
Thank you all for your prayers!