My Seoul chiropractor.  I love the guy but I can’t remember his name!!

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, I know.  I’ve been there probably 10 times now and I can’t remember his name.  I just call him ‘doc’.  I remember he told me that the ‘English’ name he uses is Andrew but he didn’t seem too attached to it.

Anyway……yeah, I’m a big believer in chiropractic treatment.  I’ve been that way every since I started using a chiropractor occasionally back in Houston, Tx., (where I’m from).  That would be sometime back around 2000.

Her name was Brenda Hassbrock.  She’s a really nice lady.  Her office is probably still over there on Fondren @ Westheimer.  I’d highly recommend her for anybody in Houston, Tx.

I seem to remember that I went to her because she was a Christian, as am I, and she was recommended to me by someone I knew.  It was constantly amazing to me how, even though she wasn’t really a ‘big’ lady, she was nevertheless able to handle me with relative ease in doing her subluxations (that’s what chiropractors call it when they crack your back).

I can’t say for sure specifically what the source of my back problem is.

Back in Houston, I had a mobile windshield repair business.  As any reader will know, automobile windshields have gotten pretty big in recent years so you can understand, I’m sure that working on them can be pretty physical.  Oftentimes, reaching where the rock chip or crack was on the windshield that I was working on was ’a stretch’.  No pun intended.  I think that might have been one of the things that aggravated some basic problems I’ve had with my back for a long time.

Or it might have been that evening in Bellaire, Houston, Tx. when I was waiting for an African band (Sunny Ade from Nigeria) to come play for a concert.  They were late so when they finally did arrive, 3 hours late, I thought I was being both nice and practical by helping them unload their equipment.  I might have overdone it in my exhuberance because I do remember that my back did hurt a few days later.

Or it might have been that time back in Saigon, around 1970, when I was visiting my apartment neighbor, co-worker and buddy Rick Snyder.  Rick was the Director of Accounting at USO Saigon where he and I both worked(I was the Director of the Call Home Program)  We both lived in an apartment building right there across from the  club on Nguyen Hue Street.  I was bouncing his little son on my extended legs and I vaguely remember that it put a strain on my back.  I actually remember hearing  something go ‘snap’ although it didn’t hurt at the time.

Or it might have had something to do with the fact that, when I was a teenager, I used to bowl a lot.  Throwing those big, heavy bowling balls around, even just a 13 pounder like I used, does put some strain on your bodily frame even for a 15 year old teenager like I was.

I’ll surely never know exactly the source of my back problems.  But I do remember that for years thereafter I sorta knew what chiropractors were and what they did but I never felt it was anything that concerned me.  I’ve always been pretty healthy and I usually dislike going to doctors.

So I sorta generally knew no more than the average person about what chiropractors were.  I was also aware that chiropractic has been a profession which, although actually a very old profession, has been somewhat maligned and riduculed and not regarded with much respect by ‘main stream’ medical doctors.

For sure, I never figured it made much difference to me.  That was……..until my back started to hurt and I had to evaluate the lest expensive, most practical and most effective solutions.  The answer, for me anyway, was regular chiropractic care.  That’s how I came to know a little bit about Seoul chiropractic care.

All I know is that it’s always the same thing and in the same area.  A pain in my lower back and on the right side.  Sometimes I get up in the morning, or after perhaps lieing down for a nap for awhile, and I literally walk in a tilted angle because the pain is so sharp in my lower, right-side, back.

I forget how I found my chiropractor in Seoul.  There are a few who advertise in some of the publications(Seoul Travel and Culture, Groove, and Ten) that foreigners in Seoul read.  Maybe that’s where I found him.  But I think it’s more likely that I found him in one of the forums that English teachers in Korea read.  That’s what I do….teach English in Korea.

His office is only a 5 minute walk from exit #10 of the #2 Green Line of Seoul subway.  I’ve been going by there every other week for the last several weeks.  I don’t feel it’s expensive and, in fact, it cost about what I used to pay Brenda, in Houston, and that was several years ago.  I know she’s gone up in her prices, so……….my guy Andrew is a fair deal I think.

It wasn’t easy to find him either.  In doing some research I found that there’s several guys who position themselves a practitioners of ‘sports medicene’ and ‘pain clinics’ and ‘massage therapists’……stuff like that.  And, yeah……there’s a few chiropractors too.  But darn few.  It ain’t nothing like back in Houston where there’s two chiropractors in every building.  Chiropractic care in Seoul is not easy to find.

Andrew’s office isn’t tine but it isn’t huge either.  He’s just a one-man practice.  But he’s got a lot of equipment in the room and every time I’m there there’s always somebody there before me and somebody coming in as I’m going out.  So, I get the impression that he has a good clientele.

I like to ask questions and he’s told me a lot about some of the techniques and tools he uses.  I’ll be sharing more about that later.  But I wanted to start this blog because I know how rough it can be for teachers in Korea (like me), and other foreigners in general, to find things like chiropractors that we take for granted back in the US (or Canada).

I wish I could give you his address but I can’t be any more specific that tell you it’s out of exit #10 of the Gangnam subway station in Seoul.  You walk down to the corner (about 2 minutes), then turn left, walk to the next small side street…..and cross it.  There’s a Burger King on that block.  His office is in the big (10?) story building almost exactly across the street from that.  He’s up on the 7th floor. 

I’m sure I’ve picked up at least 4 of his business cards when I’m there but, I swear, they dissappear into some mysterious black hole somewhere in my travel bag.  All I can do is promise to get another one this coming Saturday when I’m there for my regular appointment.

If you need chiropractic care in Seoul, I’d highly recommend Andrew, my chiropractor in Seoul. Hopefully, help  for expats living  in korea south.