It is a moment of anticipation, even though you do not know exactly when it is going to occur.

Amidst a doctor’s voice telling you to relax as much as possible and saying that this is going to be such a simple procedure that you will leave saying, “that was it, that’s all it took,” you all of a sudden hear the noise . “cc-rr-ACK.”

For a second I took the time to realize that was indeed my neck that just made that usually horrifying sound. The loudness of my neck cracking was then validated by my doctor’s reaction of, and I believe this is a technical term, “wowie!”

Soon after it is done, though, I had feelings only of relief and confidence in my doctor; a chiropractor that my parents have gone to for back treatment since I was in grade school.

I don’t think I could have gone to a chiropractor if my family hadn’t gone first because, to me, messing around with the neck and back are two of the scariest things possible. Think of any Halloween gag that you want to, but I’ll take a doctor snapping a neck anytime for fright night.

But this experience was much different than I expected it to be; it was reassuring and relaxing because a painful problem I was having in my neck was being resolved. If I needed any more evidence of that, I got it just a few moments later when the other side of my neck was cracked with a significantly lower sounding snap.

For those who don’t believe in chiropractic practicers or believe that their neck or back is something they do not want to be messed with in this fashion, all I can say is that trust in the doctor is necessary.

Knowing who my doctor was for the past 10 years of my life helped me greatly, otherwise tension would have been a sense I felt much more keenly when I went into the office. Not to mention, and not to name drop either, but it was also reassuring that the chiropractor who was working on me also had worked on Jarrett Payton, current NFL running back for the Tennessee Titans and son of former Chicago Bear great Walter Payton.

I can still recall watching my father’s back being cracked while I was a much younger person. Laying face down on a special back bed, as I liked to call them, I looked on as the middle suddenly disappeared and my father’s spine was cracked in numerous different places.

My immediate reaction as a child was the thought that this procedure must include some pain, but as my father reassured me I realized that this process was curing pain, not causing it. Now I know firsthand that this is the truth.

The American Chiropractic Association’s Web site, www.amerchiro.org, describes the basis of chiropractic practices.

“The practice and procedures which may be employed by Doctors of Chiropractic are based on the academic and clinical training . and include, but are not limited to, the use of current diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Such procedures specifically include the adjustment and manipulation of the articulations and adjacent tissues of the human body, particularly of the spinal column,” the Web site states.

I may not have believed this on a personal level before, but I am sold now.