A south side reader's guide to Tesson Ferry.

Most of this guide's readers live on the south side, city or county, and most of them will use the Tesson Ferry room. This chapter is the last mile for them: which streets, which time of day, what the midday close does to the plan, and what to have in the car. It is the kind of page a city guide owes its readers and a clinic's own site has no reason to write.

The room

Missouri Injury Clinic's south county room is at 11144 Tesson Ferry Road, Suite 200, Saint Louis, MO 63123. The phone is (314) 530-5480. Hours are Monday through Thursday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 9 to noon, and the room is closed from 12 to 2 every day for meetings. It is a suite in a commercial building on a road that is mostly suites in commercial buildings; look for the number, not a landmark.

From the south city

Soulard, Benton Park, Carondelet, Dutchtown, Bevo, the Hill, Tower Grove, Holly Hills, Boulevard Heights. The drive is south and a little west, and it has two honest versions. The interstate version is I-55 south to I-270, then a short hop west to the Tesson Ferry exit and south on Tesson Ferry. The surface version is Gravois or Kingshighway south to where the neighborhoods turn into the county, then across on Lindbergh or down through Affton to Tesson Ferry. The interstate is faster outside of rush hour; the surface route is more predictable at 5 p.m.

For a sore back, the surface route has one more advantage: more places to pull over and stand up for a minute. Sitting loads the lumbar spine more than standing, and the week between has the seat and mirror adjustments that make the drive less of a project.

From south county

Affton, Lemay, Concord, Sappington, Crestwood, Mehlville, Oakville, Green Park. Tesson Ferry Road itself runs through most of this, so for many readers the drive is simply "get to Tesson Ferry and go the right direction." Lindbergh and I-270 are the cross streets that get you there. Oakville readers come up from the south; Crestwood and Sappington readers come in from the north and west.

Readers from Arnold, Imperial, and the rest of north Jefferson County usually find Tesson Ferry a shorter drive than any other room, up I-55 or up Tesson Ferry itself from the south.

From the Metro East

If you cross the Poplar Street Bridge for work, you are a south city reader for the purposes of this guide. I-55 south from downtown to I-270 is the route. Plan the appointment for after 2 p.m. if you are coming from a day shift, or for first thing in the morning before you cross.

The noon close and the plan

The room closes from 12 to 2. A reader who calls at 9 gets the morning block. A reader who shows up at 12:10 finds a closed door. In practice it sorts appointments into two kinds: a late-morning slot that means leaving work early enough to be seen before the close, and an afternoon slot after 2 that works for anyone coming off a shift. Friday is 9 to noon only. If the crash was Friday afternoon, the honest plan is a Monday morning call and a careful weekend.

Call first, always. The front desk can tell you what to bring and confirm the hours, which are worth confirming on any day near a holiday.

What to have in the car

• Your timeline: when, where, which direction, stopped or moving, what hurt on day one and day two.
• Your symptom list: the motions that bite and anything that is not your back, including headache, fog, or dizziness.
• ER discharge papers or an imaging report if you already have one.
• ID, coverage cards, and your medication list.
• If you already have an attorney, their contact, so records can be sent where they need to go. If you do not, nothing changes.

What the room does

The same three published lanes as every Missouri Injury Clinic room: auto injuries with diagnosis and a treatment plan after a crash, TBI and concussion rehab, and sports injuries. A back that went out on a job is not a published lane by name, so call first and ask. Joseph L. Hollingsworth, DC, runs the clinic. The first visit is a real exam, history, hands-on testing, findings, and a written plan, and the first visit chapter says what to expect. The clinic is a chiropractic injury clinic, not a law office, and this guide is advertising for it.

When not to make the drive

Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic. A back injury that leaves you unable to stand, or new numbness between the legs, bladder or bowel changes, or a weak leg, goes to an emergency department, not to a suite on Tesson Ferry. The south side has emergency departments in every direction and 911 knows where they are.