here in upstate NY. For some reason that escapes me, I was home and alone in our apartment as my wife was hospitalized at the time ( and that's the part that actually escapes me! ). It was a Tuesday morning and I was waking up to have my breakfast and get ready for work, but when I tried to get out of our water bed, I immediately felt this searing pain travel through my lower back and around my waist. I cannot begin to describe to you what this pain did to me, but I can tell you it brought tears to my eyes. I somehow dragged myself out of our bed and made it to the phone and called my parents.<br><br>My mother arrived about a half hour later and had to help me get dressed. I had already called my job to let them know I would be out of work that day. My mom took me to their Chiropractor, who had done some work on my dad. This was my first introduction to a Chiropractor, and to tell the truth I was a bit frightened, as I had no prior experience with this type of a health treatment. Before any treatment could begin, I would need a set of x-rays taken in order for the Chiropractor to see what the actual problem was...then came the diagnosis I had an issue with the vertebrae in my lower back, which had caused sciatica. Then this person whose hands I was putting my body's fate in started me out with traction, which was a necessity for the first few visits of treatment.<br><br>I want to point out to you dear reader that, at this point, I was barely able to stand on my own, and I was definitely not going to be able to perform cartwheels anytime soon. After almost a month of going to see this man of manipulation four times a week, I was finally starting to be able to stand and walk around a bit... assisted of course. It would take a full three months of treatments, before I was able to have any real type of freedom of movement, and to be able to walk on my own again without any one's help. I would continue to see my Chiropractor over the next several years. The benefits for myself have been that through regular chiropractic treatments, my body was put back into alignment,my sciatica was relieved and after continued treatments has become a non issue for me. My chiropractor also demonstrated different techniques for stretching which came in handy at the time as I was also weightlifting.<br><br>In my case, my chiropractor also was able to assist me with proper weightlifting techniques to keep my body in perfect alignment in order to avoid placing any undue stress on my lower back. Another thing that I was impressed with was the knowledge of Kinesiology that my chiropractor was able impart to me to help me understand better the way my body worked as far as exercise in general was concerned. After about a month and a half of treatments, I started to get some of my energy back , and I also noticed that as my treatments continued, my recovery time from my workouts started to improve also.