Catalyst Physical Medicine

I’ve been going to chiropractors on and off since 1990, beginning with neck pain due to multiple cases of whiplash, apparently caused by flinging myself around concert mosh pits. Next I went for allergies, then a few years later when I slid on black ice and crashed into the concrete wall on the interstate, and the next year when I began working full-​time as a data geek and started having symptoms of carpal tunnel, tennis (mouse) elbow, and pain in my shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers. Some offices have just been straight up chiro, others have had physical therapy, massage, acupuncture, nutrition, herbs/​oils/​crystals, and things you might find in the «drug» section of Whole Foods, or in a pagan bookstore.
So I know what works for me — in this order: chiropractic and massage; acupuncture for allergies, but not RSI pain; nutrition and herbs, as long as it’s actually found in nature, and not some pop-​fad pill, powder, juice, shake, «As seen on Dr. Oz» miracle cure. I don’t really have an opinion of the little physical therapy stations, I’ve never noticed them helping (here or anywhere else), but they don’t seem to hurt and the PTAs are friendly. I’ve gotten trigger point injections, which have not helped (and usually make things worse the next day), but again the nurse is nice — I just don’t get anything out of it. The office hours are great if you work at home and can come during the day — good luck getting here by 5:00 pm (or 6:00 on the «late days») during rush hour, and the earliest you can be out of there is 9:00 am — when do you go if you work 8:00 — 5:00? Also, no Sat hours, no morning hours on Tues/​Thurs, and no afternoon hours on Fri. The layout of the office is weird too — everything is out in the open so there’s no privacy to talk to the doctor, and all the patients can see each other (especially awesome when you’re sitting on the giant vibrating thing and your boobs shake so much you worry they’ll bounce out of your shirt).
In 25 years I’ve never had a chiropractor improvise an adjustment based on how it worked for me. For YEARS I’ve said pushing this spot on my back makes my hands numb, and for YEARS I’ve been told that’s impossible because the nerves coming out of that part of my spine don’t go to my hands. So when Dr. Rob did that adjustment and I said my hands went numb, he got up and looked at my position on the table from different angles, had me raise my arms up and move them in different directions. He realized I was too short to properly line up with the contours of the table causing my neck and back to be at an odd angle, so he repositioned me on the table and fixed it. Same thing with my elbow — everyone’s adjusted it the standard way, but Dr. Rob does something to «get my ulna out of the way» then adjusts it, and that works much better. He gets that not everyone’s a textbook case, keeps trying different things, and you don’t leave until you feel better. I’ve definitely noticed a difference since starting treatment in March, but I know it will take a long time to get me back to normal since I’ve been out of whack for so long. I’m really happy I finally found someone who listens to what I’m saying and tries to figure out a way to fix my odd little quirks instead of sticking with the status quo.
I’ve only seen Barry for massage therapy once, but I like him already. He asks you what hurts and what you’re doing when it hurts, to figure out if it’s a muscle, ligament, or tendon that needs to be worked on. And he also incorporates stretching into the massage (or massage into stretching?) so my arms were worked on with my fingers both flexed and extended, as well as in a neutral position. My forearms were hard as a rock before, and now three days later they still feel like jelly. Also, I’m not nearly as sore as I thought I would be since it’s been a few years since my last massage — Barry somehow manages to do a gentle deep tissue massage. I’m not sure how that’s possible (he can probably bend spoons with his mind too), but I made another appointment for next week.
So the best part about coming here is Dr. Rob the chiropractor and Barry the massage therapist both get 5 stars!
Office hours, open layout, time it takes to go through the stations gets 3 stars.