Beginnings - The Chiropractor? Why the Chiro?

After getting off of the phone with my husband, I quickly dialed up the office of my chiropractor. Yes, you read that right, I dialed my chiropractor. They told me to come on in and they'd squeeze me in.

Ok, I realize this will take some explaining. In April of 2006, I suffered a whiplash injury. After working with my GP for six month, I finally took the advice of a friend and went to visit a local chiropractor. Now I had bad prior experiences with chiropractors but I was ensured that this one was different. Sure enough, he uses the activator and within two weeks I was feeling much better and without the tell tale "bruising" that I'd gotten from others.

Anyway, over the year that I'd gone to him for treatment, we became pretty good friends. I even ended up recommending my husband go in for treatment for hip issues he'd suffered from for over 8 years. He was able to get him feeling better in no time at all. So now, not only did I look at him as a friend and confidant, but so did my husband.

I guess I will now address why I had THE MRI in the first place. My son and I were playing catch in the yard one afternoon and he threw a ball that took a short hop. Needless to say, I am no longer 15 and didn't pick it up like I used to in my playing days. I was popped in the left side of my face with the ball. I had a nice fat lip and the right side of my face decided to develop a complete numbness. (Almost like you came from the dentist only over the whole right side.) The numbness didn't go away. Not wanting to take the chance that the numbness was being caused by a nerve in my neck, I visited the chiropractor with my dilemma. This started the cycle of seeing him, my GP, and eventually a neurologist and rounds of ibuprophen, aleve, and prednisone to attempt to remedy the problem. They all believed it was an inflamed trigeminal nerve but when it didn't seem to improve, it was agreed it'd be best to make sure that is the cause. Thus, why August 22nd I went in for the MRI that changed my life.

So back to the chiropractor... Being the wonderful guy he is, he had touched base with me to see how things were going when he could. That was why I found myself driving to his office just minutes after being told I had a brain tumor. Little would I know, that there was more fate working that day than I'd ever known.

They worked me in, just as promised and I was a bit nervous as I sat down across from him and said, "Dr. I've been told I have a benign brain tumor." His reaction was very professional but I could see the concern in his eyes. We talked for around 20 minutes about what was found, where I'd have to head with this, and what it meant. As an example of the type of man he is, one of the first words out of his mouth was "can I put you on our church's prayer chain?" I was, of course, honored that he was willing. The instinct I would develop over the next several days was to hug every one I saw and it started here.

The next day, stress had caught up with me and my neck decided it didn't want to cooperate with its tell-tale creaking. Therefore, I saw him again on Thursday, only this time was for an actual adjustment. We talked quite a bit about how I was taking things during the treatment and at the end he decided I was mentally able to handle the news he was about to tell me. On Wednesday, he was dealing with demons of his own, for the night before he had been in an accident where a man was killed. It was no fault of his, but we all can imagine how hard it must be to have to deal with something like this. The fact he had listened to me the previous day and had been the friend that I'd come to see him as, confirmed that he is one of the best doctors that I've ever had the privilege of knowing. He told me my attitude was a reminder that life goes on and God gives us our own battles that we must face.

I would find myself valuing his judgment and opinions on several issues in the future and continue to look at him as much more than a doctor.