You should ask your chiropractor for a full explanation of how chiropractic works and ask him exactly what he's doing to you and what he hopes to achieve with the treatment he's applying.

The way they explained it to me, chiropractic is based on the idea that the central nervous system is the main control system for the entire body. That's why they always concentrate on the neck and back, where the spinal cord is located. The spinal cord is basically an extension of your brain with nerves branching off its entire length that feed into every part of the body. If the vertebrae surrounding the spine get out of place (what they call a subluxation), it puts pressure on those nerves which can impede or block the impulses flowing back and forth to any part of the body. They use lots of different methods of putting things back in place, including manual adjustments with their hands, or maybe a little mechanical plunger type device. They also often use massage, heat and cold applications, ultrasound, or electrical stimulation to help relax muscles, since muscle tension or spasms are usually the first sign that's something wrong.

My chiropractor actually does something different every time I go in. (I'd avoid ones who run you through an assembly line type process, doing the same thing each time, since the state of your spinal health can fluctuate greatly in just a matter of days.) He usually does a spinal exam with me standing or sitting, where he feels all along the spine, moving me around gently in lots of different directions to see how things are moving. Then he has me lie down on the table so he can make adjustments to my spine, in whichever part it's needed. Since he's started treating me for the pain of EP, he usually concentrates mostly on my lower back and tailbone area. He says there's always a lot of misalignment and muscle tension in those areas, which makes sense to me since I know the pain receptors out front that lead back to that part of the spine have been firing pretty much non-stop for the last three months now...

I'm experiencing improvement from it too, but it has been a very slow, gradual process for me, with lots of ups and downs. I intend to stick with it though since it's the only thing that has ever really helped with the pain at all.

Good luck and keep us informed on your progress...