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#138 GREATEST HONOR

7/1/2015

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I never really liked kids…until I had one.  My daughter was born in 1984.  By then I had been married for 4 years.  I was in my second year of chiropractic college.  I had my B.S. degree in Biology from UC Irvine.  My wife and I had many friends in similar stages of life.  Some had children.  Some didn’t.  I just didn’t see the magic.  I didn’t want to play with their kids.  I wasn’t really sure I wanted one.  I knew it was an inevitability that we would have one someday.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want one, it was just that I wasn’t sure that I did want one… very different.  Truth be told before we were even married, my wife and I had picked out a name for a girl, Kira, from a really bad movie with Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton John, Xanadu.  No boy’s name. 

            February 1984.  We found out my wife, Diana, was pregnant.  How did that happen?!  Fast forward to October 12, 1984.  Kira is born…and…BAM!!  I am completely smitten by her.  It’s like falling in love in a different way than I have ever fallen in love before.  This has happened 4 times in my life.  The first was Grad Night 1978.  Within a month of that fateful date I’m asking Diana, “What would you think if I asked you to marry me?”  Perhaps not the most romantic proposal, but at 17 years of age, who knows what romance is?!  The second was when Kira was born.  The third was my son, Ricky.  And the fourth, as most of you know, was when my grandson, Jackjack, came to life. 

            But that first child changed everything.  I got to know just how precious children are.  I got to know just how much of a responsibility it is to care for them, to love them, to treasure them, to protect them.  I got to know what a truly full heart feels like.  And along the way I discovered that every baby I hold, every child I tease, every kid I quiz about his or her school or favorite video game, every wonderful hug I get fills my heart just a little.  And every time it fills up, more room is added to ladle in more love. 

            In 1987 I earned my license to practice chiropractic in the state of California.  The great thing about what I do is that I can make my practice look like anything I want.  I wanted to incorporate children in it.  But to do so I needed to learn alot more, and so I did.  The Peter Pan Potential is a series of pediatrics training courses for chiropractors.  The Pediatrics Council of the International Chiropractors Association offers a chiropractic diplomate program in pediatrics.  I underwent a year of that particular training. 

            And right after that training patient zero happened, my son, Ricky.  This is 1991 now, and Ricky the 2 year old has a raging left sided ear infection.  Otoscopic evaluation of the right side is completely normal.  Left side is red, bulging, angry.  He’s crying.  Fever.  I had learned from Dr. Joan Fallon how to handle this, so I did just what she trained me to do, I adjusted the joint between the base of Ricky’s skull and his neck.  No exaggeration, his left ear was completely clear and normal the next morning. 

            And from there it has gone on and on and on.  Hundreds of kids, many on my wall, all a little or a perhaps alot healthier.  They are fun to play with, fun to work with, and just a joy to be a part of their life.

            But what always will mean the most to me is the moment when a parent hands over their greatest treasure, their child, to my hands, and demonstrates the ultimate trust in me to do what I think is best for their child.  Each of these moments is the greatest honor of my life.  Thank you.

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    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!

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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.