Maybe some good news?

So today I went to a chiropractor. And it was just a "let's see what's going on with your body and tell you how we think we can help it" all for free sort of appointment. I also actually took my middle dd to see if they could help any ...

As for me ...
Well, I'm crossing my fingers that they can help. She is going to try to do something with the muscles in my jaw to help with the TMJ (which will hopefully help with the pain, the headaches and some of the sleep issues). They are also going to work on my back (I slipped a disc about 6 years ago and have had issues with it ever since).
The bad news is - she is thinking I might have some issues with my discs (as in they are degenerating too quickly for my age) OR she is concerned that there might be some arthritis going on with my back - and quite possibly my jaw.
Right now, I am slated to go in 3 times a week for a month. She said at that point, we'll know if what she is doing is helping or not. And if it's helping, that's good!
She has also ordered x-rays of my back and an MRI of my jaw. She wants to really get a good look at those joints (and it's actually nice because the oral surgeon also suggested an MRI of my jaw so I can get copies sent out to them!)
Anyway, my grandpa had awful arthritis. And had lots of joints replaced. And I'm really kind of scared they are going to find out I have it too.
Hopefully, it's just some muscle issues or whatever that can be solved with some good treatments and then I can have a while of pain-free living (because once the symptoms are under control she told me I would stop going to see her and not have to return unless/until symptoms came back.
I will say I was encouraged to hear her say that after a month or two, I shouldn't have to return because a)it wouldn't help anyway or b) the symptoms should be under control enough that I don't need to see them anymore! Frankly, I'm not in a mood to have to see the chiropractor every single week for the next 5 years or something like that!

As far as my dd -
Great news. She tested her muscle strength and although she said her muscles were slightly floppy, they were completely in the range of normal! YEAH! This is the first exam she has gotten and not been flagged for low muscle tone. She even said her arms and legs were extremely strong for her age, and the slight weakness is in the trunk area. One thing I can mark off my list of concerns for Little Miss M!
Also, they will do some adjustments on her to help with her chronic constipation issues. I have heard from one (and only one) person recently that chiropractic care helped her with these issues and thought, what is the harm in trying it out? Again, M is slated to go in 3 times a week for 4 weeks (so basically we are booking all our appointments together). She told me too, that within that month there will be a huge difference or not, and either way, none to minimal care should be needed after that first month. I would love if we could get M off the daily laxative. Or even if we could just start to lower her dose. Because I hate having to give her a daily medicine and I am worried about her becoming too dependent upon it every day.

Anyway, I will be seeing a lot of this doctor over the next 4 weeks! And I will be relying on a lot of people to help watch the other two children while M and I get some adjustments.

I am praying that this will help the both of us. And that the problems are really just simple and quick to fix!

Can someone please explain this to me ...

My insurance company covers an annual PAP test (I know, the really fun one we women can't wait to have @@) BUT they won't cover the office visit to get it. So they are covering the actual test but the rest they are not.
Now, not a big deal for dh and I, but what I'm wondering is people who are already super tight on money, how many women won't go in for their pap exam because let me tell you, the actual test was 50.00 and the rest of the office visit will cost us 130.00 bucks. I'd rather pay for the test and have my insurance cover the visit people! Not only that, but my insurance does not cover ANY well-visit/health checks if you are over 16. That means if I went in for a physical exam right now, they wouldn't cover it. How does that make sense? Wouldn't it be cheaper for them in the long run to encourage yearly (or every 1-3 year) physical exams so that hopefully we could find problems when they were small and not wait until they are large?
It ticks me off and really I think the smarter route to go would be preventative medicine and not trying to fix things after they are broken. I'm not saying I expect a full body scan every 6 months, but it would be nice to know that every 2 years I could go into my doctor, have a normal physical, make sure everything is okay and go about my day and that my insurance company supports that!

Although, I haven't exactly liked our policy for a while (in terms of my dd's therapy, the dental part is almost non-existent, etc, etc). They do not sell the policy we have - and she told me today they haven't sold it for a few years. So maybe soon they will make my dh's company pick a different plan. And all I can pray for is that when that happens, we end up with a better plan and not something that covers even less.


p.s. my results from my pap came back perfectly normal. Not that we expected anything to show up, but it was nice to know that it was normal!