First Visit

After Care

Pauline first became a patient of Nicola in 1995 when she was at the Alton practice and John became a patient shortly after. We followed Nicola to Fleet Chiro clinic and have remained regular patients to date.

Our treatment comprises general half yearly checkups and the occasional specific treatment for example when John had a number of monthly visits to deal with lower back pain.

We both find that the McTimoney technique suits us very well which coupled with Nicola’s skills has helped maintain our skeletal health over the years. Pauline worked as a secretary and the treatment kept neck tension at bay.

We find that Nicola is easy to deal with, has a  warm welcoming manner, a sense of humour and gives confident advice during the sessions, treating accordingly. These are the reasons we always look forward to our regular visits and come out feeling much better.

– John & Pauline Hanrahan

First Visit

 Your first visit will be a double appointment lasting 1 hour and 20 min. Half the time will be spent filling in a record card of your personal and medical details and the next 40 mins will be for an examination and treatment.

Our first concern is to find out what is wrong and  if at any point our chiropractor discovers or suspects a condition that requires medical interventions, they will refer you to your GP. Our chiropractors will:

  • Take a full medical case history, ask about your general health lifestyle and activities, previous conditions and details of any past or present symptoms.
  • Explain Chiropractic and ask your consent to examine you, carrying out any necessary orthopaedic & neurological diagnostic tests.
  • We can treat patients in home clothing, if items are light or loose fitting. It can be necessary to ask patients to remove items of clothing in order to reach the area of attention. We provide gowns.
  • Refer you for X-ray or MRI if necessary. (Through GP or privately)
  • We will explain our findings and plan of treatment, then with your consent, make any necessary light manual adjustments.
  • We will explain how our findings relate to your symptoms and answer any questions that you may have.
  • We will give preventative aftercare advice, as appropriate, about lifestyle, diet, posture, stretch and exercise. We can discuss methods of non prescriptive pain control if necessary.

Follow up treatment

These are a generous 40 minutes, initially weekly. This allows us plenty of time to listen to how your body has adapted to treatment and so, adapt our plan of care accordingly, before giving you plenty of treatment time.

We aim to help relive your problem as quickly as possible. We like for you to feel independent of Chiropractic NOT dependant. After initial treatment, most patients feel significant improvement quite quickly, Whilst we like to see symptoms go quickly, the underlying cause may still be there,  Pain is often the last thing to come and the first thing to go. We like to see the causative problem gone so that it does not reoccur in the future. To do this we advise increasing interval treatments, so that we can be sure that your body continues to stay well, whilst becoming less reliant on us. Some people find this so useful that they choose to come for occasional check ups, enjoying a more comfortable/healthier quality of life between visits.

Your Recovery

During your treatments we will reassess and monitor your progress and ensure that we are meeting your expectations. The number of sessions required varies and depends on:

  • How long you’ve had the problem – the more recent, then usually the quicker it will heal
  • The nature of your problem – simple of more complex
  • Your age – older people tend to heal more slowly
  • Your lifestyle – how you use your body
  • Your diet, general health and fitness and stress
  • Your recovery is also influenced by your compliance and engagement with our self help advice.

Your chiropractor will give you an idea of how many treatments that you will need at your first visit. However, most people feel a lot better after 1 – 3 appointments.