Melissa Kite Melissa Kite

Why I finally succumbed to my musclebound osteopath

The pain wore me down to the point where I was prepared to try anything

The back cracker appeared, biceps bulging, his shoulders even wider than I’d remembered [Photo: Ievgeniia Pidgorna / Alamy Stock Photo] 
issue 05 June 2021

‘You’ll come back when you’re in enough pain,’ said the osteopath as I walked out of his door. That was two years ago this week, so when I walked back through the door he raised his eyebrows and made a face. I had booked online as I lay shivering in bed with pain.

Two years ago I ducked under a fence, my neck twanged and my head exploded. The GP saw me, doling out platitudes from ‘take paracetamol’ to ‘give it a few weeks’.

After a few months, a friend recommended an osteo of some repute, but when I arrived at his surgery early and heard the bone-crunching sounds coming from his consulting room I decided I couldn’t go through with it.

Before I left, I let him put his hand on my neck and he instantly claimed he could tell what was wrong. But on the basis that he was as muscle-bound as Popeye, I told him he would snap me in two.

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