Why I take a detailed history, even about injuries decades old.
A woman in her mid-50s came to see me, referred by her daughter, who is also a chiropractor. She had been dealing with upper-back pain for more than 30 years. She had seen other chiropractors over the years and would get temporary relief, but the pain always returned.
When I took her history, I learned that as a teenager she had been in a car that went over a jump at speed without her wearing a seatbelt. On landing, she struck her head hard against the roof of the car. She hadn’t connected that injury to her ongoing back pain, and neither had anyone she’d previously seen.
What I found
On examination, I found cranial restrictions that I considered relevant given her history and presentation.
What I did
I adjusted the cranial restrictions I’d identified.
What changed
She reported a significant reduction in her upper-back tension following the adjustment, after decades of the problem recurring despite other care.
I don’t think this case shows that cranial restrictions are the source of most upper-back pain — they aren’t. What it illustrates is why I ask about head injuries from any point in someone’s life, even ones that seem unrelated or long forgotten. Her case is one of the reasons I take that history seriously.
Related reading
Read about cranial adjusting after head or facial injury, or see more real patient cases.