Second visit to the chiropractor today to get the results from my x-rays.  The news was not good.  Major issues in my neck, upper back and lower back.  Basically the vertebrae in my neck are bent in the exact opposite way that they should be.  Great.  At least that explains a lot.  Anyway, he pointed to one of the main causes of this mis-shaping:the amount of time I spend in front of my laptop. Like a lot of people out there, after 9-10 hours at the office I spend another few at home every night and obviously I’m not sitting in an ergonomically correct position.  He told me I have to move my laptop so that the screen is at eye level (or even a little higher so that my neck can correct itself).  One woman I work with sits on an exercise ball all day which forces her to sit up straight.  I meant to ask him if I should try that.  Oh, and at the top of the list of “don’ts” are running (perhaps this is really a blessing in disguise as I’m not a runner but was trying to be) and lifting my older son.  Yeah, try telling a 2-year-old that mommy can’t pick him up.  Not gonna happen.   There was already one meltdown tonight over that.

So I have to go in 3 times a week for the next 4 weeks for treatment, then he’ll reassess me and either continue on the path we’re on OR refer me to someone else.  He basically said my body is one big knot between my neck and my pelvis.  Where the muscle should be soft and sponge-like, mine is hard as a rock.  My question is this:  I know there are many people out there who put in just as many or more hours in front of a computer every day than I do.  Is my posture really that much worse than everyone else’s?  Why aren’t there more ergonomics people running around out there?

Back when I was working a part-time data entry job in college, one of the first people I met with was an ergonomics specialist who made sure everything was at the right height for each employee.  What I wouldn’t give for someone to come in and do that for me now!