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#15 Who's Right?

3/12/2014

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Who’s right?  This is a loaded question with many answers.  If I’m speaking to a politician Reagan was right while Carter was left.  If I’m speaking to a xenophobe America is right as the rest of the world simply isn’t.  If I’m speaking to my wife, she is right as I am always wrongJ  By the way, on a side note this last truism that the wife is always right has taught me that the correct response to any disagreement between a man and his wife is for the man to hold up four fingers in the air and to adopt a sheepish, sorrowful and pitying look on his face.  The four fingers held in the air might be to stop an imminent left hook from the wife, but it’s supposed to represent the four pillars of marital bliss and peaceful coexistence.  One – I’m sorry.  Two – I was wrong.  Three – I was a jerk.  Four – Will you forgive me?  Harmony is restored…right Honey?  But none of this has anything to do with this article, Who’s Right?

            I have performed thousands of examinations on patients over the course of 23 years of chiropractic practice.  I may learn slowly but I do learn.  One thing I have learned is that while the patient is always right, he/she is also always wrong.  Huh?  But it is true.  You are always right in that what you feel is what you feel and it is right.  No one can argue that you do or don’t feel what you feel or that what you feel is mild or moderate or severe.  It is what you say it is because it is you.  In that respect you are right, always. 

            OK, knowing that you are right let’s consider a scenario.  Three patients come in for a subluxation examination and all three have the same results; The same postural distortions, the same loss of motion, the same nerve interference, the same muscle spasm pattern, the same spinal inflammation, and the same level of subluxation degeneration.  But patient 1 has migraine headaches.  Patient 2 has low back pain and sciatica.  Patient 3 has no symptoms at all and has come in for wellness reasons.  One exam, three different symptom patterns.  All respond to the same adjustments to correct the same subluxation.  Who’s right?  Who’s wrong?  All three are both right and wrong.

            They are all right in that what they feel is what they feel.  Each has his/her own pain tolerance, pain threshold, and personal history.  And they are all wrong in that they use their symptoms to be the primary monitor of improvement.  This is not to say that we don’t want you to feel better.  Of course we do.  But, since the same subluxation pattern can cause a multitude of health problems, just because your particular symptom has improved (or not) does not tell us how much subluxation you may still have.  It does not tell us about other potential subluxation-caused health problems just around the corner.  What good is less low back pain if disease is building inside your body?  (See #5 What Will I Die Of) 

            So while symptoms are what usually starts our relationship, we must use the subluxation examination findings to measure the progress.  It’s only the RIGHT thing to do.

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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.