My chiropractor rocks.

Last spring, my shoulder started aching once in a while during rides. It would hurt when the wind would be from a certain angle, or when I was hunched over funny, or after riding for a hundred miles or so. Extremely painful, but sporadic enough not to cause concern.

Over the past few months, the pain was getting worse and more frequent. By early December, my entire left shoulder would be in sharp pain, with referred pain all the way down my arm, after just 15 miles.

Now, OK, pain after 100 miles of riding a sportsbike is acceptable. But 15 miles? Not so much. So, the last time I was at my chiropractor, I spoke with her about it.

Tonight, I had another appointment. After the usual adjustment, Anne told me to put on my jacket and we walked down to the bike. She helped me get the bike on its centerstand, and I climbed on. Anne did some adjustments while I was in my usual riding position.

After about a minute, Anne spotted the problem. The Kilimanjaro jacket has two collars: the fleece liner collar, and the thick outer collar. The latter is thick and bunches up easily; it turns out that when the collar wasn’t folded back properly, it was bunching up under my helmet and putting pressure on a nerve that feeds my shoulder. You know how wearing a heavy backpack can really make your arm hurt — not in a muscular way, but in a very sharp, “someone is jabbing an ice pick into my shoulder blade” way? Same thing.

So, we go back upstairs and when I left, Anne folded my outer collar down very nicely. The ride home was like I was wearing a whole new jacket. As soon as I got home, I busted out the adhesive-backed Velcro and velcro’ed that collar down so that it would stay folded.

My shoulder is still sore now, from being worked on, but I’m hoping that The Mystery Of The Excrutiating Shoulder Pain has been solved.

For those in the area, Dr Anne works for:
Aloha Healing Center
15951 Los Gatos Blvd Ste 15
Los Gatos, CA 95032-3488
(408) 358-9339

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