SOUTHRIDGE CHIROPRACTIC                     CENTER
909-428-0700
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Your First Visit
  • The Office
  • My Articles
  • Contact Us
  • COVID19

#124 Patient's Patience 

5/1/2014

0 Comments

 
            In 1999 the pain in my right buttock, thigh, calf, and foot was so bad that I actually was worried that I might be permanently disabled.  Every step came with a sharp stab of pain.  If you have read my story in one of my other articles this was about the time when I got my own “health-religion” and began taking very good care of myself in many ways, including, ironically, my spine.  But it took several months for my chiropractor and me to get this first problem under control.  And even today, if I don’t stay on top of the subluxation, the old pain can sneak back in, necessitating short periods of Intensive Care.  In 2009 I had another bout of low back pain in which I could not stand up without help and support.  I went through more months of Initial Intensive Care in addition to time-consuming decompression treatments.  In late 2010 I injured the plantar fascia of my right foot.  I re-injured it a couple of months later in the very same sport as the first injury, so I stopped playing that sport, called pickle-ball (Funny name…really fun to playL).  Months later just as it was improving, I ran less than a mile and I injured it again.  Over a year later after treating it at home every single night it finally healed.  So while I am your doctor I am also a devoted chiropractic patient.  And as a doctor I have learned many lessons that I employ every day to help you and my other patients.  But as a patient the greatest lesson I have learned is the lesson of patience.  I am the patient patient.

            How long does it take to recover from a heart attack, assuming you survive it?  Months?  Years?  Never?  It may take weeks to return to your normal activities.  It will take months for complete healing to occur.  But the heart will never ever be the same again.  Cells have died forever.  As a patient you accept this and know it will take a long time to recover.  You are going to have to change your lifestyle.  You are going to have to exercise, lose weight, change your diet, and on and on. 

            How long does it take to recover from cancer?  A more difficult question to answer since there are so many types of cancer.  But whether its breast cancer, lung cancer, bone cancer, or prostate cancer, the damaged tissues will never be the same again.  And again you accept this time-line, the length of recovery, 5 years until declared cancer-free.  And again you change your life-style, and do so willingly. 

            Beyond the fact that both of the above are life threatening diseases, the main reason I argue that we are willingly patient with these and other similar chronic diseases is simply that they are diseases.  We understand that diseased organs take time to become sick and time to heal.  We understand that diseased tissues may never be the same again.  After all, they are diseased.

            And that is exactly what subluxation of the spine is.  It is a disease of the joints of the spine.  It is Degenerative Disc Disease.  It is Erosive Cartilage Disease of the spinal facet joints.  It is the disease of spondylosis causing bone spurs on the spine.  It is the disease of disc herniation, protrusion, and prolapse.  It is a disease of pathomechanics of spinal motion.  It is a disease of hyper-inflammation, hyper-scar tissue formation, hypomobility, and hypermobility.  And ultimately it is a disease of cartilage, the only tissue in your body that has absolutely no blood supply of its own, and cannot heal or repair. 

            And yet, with my three tool model of chiropractic care, we can repair these diseases enough to reduce your pain and significantly slow the rate of degeneration.  I am awed by this every time I see it happen.  But because it is a disease, I am both the patient doctor and the patient patient.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Dr. Rick

    After writing an article per week for a year, I just kept going.  These are most of my collection.  They are written with my existing patients in mind, so some stuff may seem odd or unusual, but would make perfect sense to those who know chiropractic and who know me.  Enjoy and share!  For my personal blog visit: 

    Personal Blog

    Archives

    March 2020
    November 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All

Company

Home
About Us
Your First Visit
The Office
Blog
Contact Us
COVID19
909-428-0700

What Our Patients Have To Say

Yolanda wrote:
     
     I used to suffer severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis, usually all day.  I managed to work in an office because I had to.  When I went home at the end of the day I would often close the shades and go to bed.  I could not plan weekend events because I simply never knew how I was going to feel tomorrow.  If there were a special event such as a birthday or wedding, I would begin to medicate myself two weeks in advance to give myself the best chance of making the event.
     Friends and fellow church-goers had been trying to get me to see Dr. Rick for some time before I finally gave in.  Looking back, I don’t know why I waited.  Within a month, I was headache free.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel pain.  I could do whatever I wanted and not live in fear of the headache.  This was a miracle for me, but the story does not end here.
     An opportunity came up for us to adopt a newborn baby girl not long after I began chiropractic care.  This baby was particularly important to me and my husband because her mother is a relative.  Tragically, her mother was also a drug user and did drugs during her pregnancy.  If we could not adopt the baby she would have been put into the foster system since the biological mother was incapable of raising her.
     To keep a long story short, we did adopt her and she is doing fantastically.  There is no sign of any effect of the drugs on her as of yet, and with God’s help, there never will be.  We think that is because of the vast amounts of love and attention she gets from us, her real mommy and daddy.
     What does this have to do with chiropractic?  The reality is that without chiropractic, I would still be nearly an invalid with headaches.  I COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF AN INFANT OR RAISED A YOUNG CHILD.  THEREFORE, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE FOR HER.  MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE SOMEBODY MADE ME GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR. 
     You need to tell everyone you know what you know about chiropractic.  Who knows who’s life you will change too.
Andrew's mother, Barbara, wrote:

     Hello, My name is Andrew and I am a happy, healthy one year old.  But I wasn’t so happy or healthy when I first met Dr. Rick a few months ago.  I had been having problems with my ears for four months, I couldn’t sleep at night and I was miserable.  We’d been to the doctor lots of times but nothing was helping.  In fact, all the medicines the doctor had tried seemed to make me worse instead of better!  Both the regular doctor and the Ear-Nose and Throat doctor said that if the antibiotics didn’t work, then they’d just have to put tubes in.  Now my Mom and dad weren’t about to let them do surgery on me, especially since they had been reading and learned that tubes can cause more problems than they solve.  My mom and dad did a lot of praying.  Then my mom heard that sometimes babies who have a traumatic birth like mine have ear trouble.  You see when I was born they used a vacuum extractor and forceps to pull me out.  I guess all that yanking on my head, hurt my neck.  She also heard that chiropractic care can be the answer.  Now she was skeptical because she couldn’t imagine a chiropractor helping ear infections!?!  But at that point she was willing to try anything!!  Happily, a few weeks of adjustments and my ears were all cleared up.  In addition, I no longer had a stiff neck or shoulders and my whole personality was happier.  I have to tell all babies who have ear troubles, don’t let them give you tubes until you at least try chiropractic care first.  After all, it can’t hurt and if you’re like me, you could be perfectly well with no drugs and no surgery.  In my family, we thank God for Dr. Rick, because I feel better, my mom and dad are happier and sometimes, I even sleep through the night.