Have you heard about chiropractic? It is widely known as the natural approach toward a healthier life by self-healing (without medicine). Mostly chiropractic improves the neuro system function by correcting the possible defect/deficiency from the normal function. It has been spreading widely like a mushroom in rainy days lately in Jakarta. Though I didn't know much about the practice itself, but I wished to share with you about my oldest girl's theraphy. Perhaps, the info will help some of you :-)
I had been noticing my girl's posture long ago...she was kind of hunching her back. I thought it was probably because of her height which was quite tall for her age (used to). However, after months of observation, I guessed it was hunched because of her bad habit in sitting, sleeping and other activities. I often teased her as dino since she had spiked back (from her spinal bones) whenever she bent forward...just like the dino's back (I can't remember the name though...something with saurus-word Ħǎː̗(^▽^)ː̖Ħǎː̗(^▽^)ː̖Ħǎ). Before it got too late, we decided to bring her for check-up and treatment.
At first, we went to a chiropractic at CP mall with male foreign doctor (a package of 6sessions). He asked me to have my girl's rontgen and return after it was ready. They took posture photo for reference, just a normal photo which the patient stands in front of gridded lines. The gridded lines serves as the normal posture standard and will help in identifying the wrong posture. There was our 1st session with less than 15mins discussion. Then the 2nd session also went for another 15mins, with a little bit poking here and there by him. The doctor didn't talk a lot, though I asked him lots of question. Since I considered myself pretty fluent in English, I didn't think language became barrier. From the 3rd session onward, my girl had roughly 30mins of exercise (using either gym ball, some sort of neck massager, and other thing that I normally found inside certain sport shop in the mall). After the exercise, the doctor would check my girl for less than 5mins. So, after the package was taken, I didn't continue the treatment there. I was kinda off with the way the doctor treated his patient.
So, based on my friend's recommendation, I changed to another place at Kelapa Gading (they have a branch at PIK as well). During my first free-trial consultation session with the doctor (female this time), I was impressed by the way the doctor treated the patient. By looking at the rontgen pic provided and thermal-scan result (a painless scan which measures the heat of the spinal - the higher the heat, shows the higher percent of something goes wrong), she clearly told us what happened, what would happened if it wasn't treated, why it happened, what should be done, etc. She was informative (not holding onto certain info) and willing to share. Luckily my girl wasn't suffer from sciolosis or any spinal defect. She told us that my girl's right hip bone wasn't on its proper place, as well as the curve on the upper spinal bones. Based on her observation, she said my girl probably had flatfeet and urged me to make an appointment to a specialist with 2years in advance waiting list (bah!). Intensive treatment could return the spinal to its normal posture, provided my girl do the instructed exercise routinely at home and revise her habit in sitting and sleeping.
Then I decided to take 2 packages of treatment for my girl (since the package price was cheaper than fee per session and 1package is for 12sessions). The first 2 months were intensive, with 3-4 sessions per week then she had one session per week. Beside the treatment, my girl is supposed to wear a special designed vest (with cost us IDR 800k) as well to support her proper posture, with minimum 8hours of usage everyday. The first 2weeks of using vest were pretty hard and tiring for my girl, though we only used it for 4 hours per day. But after she is getting used to it, she wears it like the fashion now *grinning
After the first package was taken, the second thermal scan showed improvement of her spinal condition. Though her condition was improved, however, the daily use of vest didn't fully support her back (perhaps due to her small size in body). After discussion, we decided to throw in a new stuff in the treatment, called RockTape. A strong yet flexible tape which is normally used by athlete. For me, another extra cost IDR250k per box (only for around 2 months of use). Pretty pricey since the stuff is imported. In parallel, we continued with one sessions biweekly and now, she is undergoing one session per month for the rest of the treatment.
After lots of discussion, I deducted that the main cause of her spinal problem was due to her bad posture habit (which is easier to correct before puberty-age). Another cause was the soft rubber sandals/shoes that were very famous (used by toddler to aged person). Based on my discussion with technical advisor from a vendor which designs a custom-made cushion for flatfeet, etc, the soft design footware doesn't fully support the growth of the foot bones into a proper one. By using these kinds of sandals/shoes for a long time, the possibility of children to have flatfeet or other kind defect is higher. At the end, to promote a healthier life (coz lots of sickness can be derived from spinal), though it is difficult, we should start with proper posture habit along with proper treatment...like...throwing away those sandals (based on an input from my dearest one, i deleted the initial of the sandals' brand)
