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

#72 Three Speeds And A Sissy Bar

4/2/2014

0 Comments

 
            I had a three speed bike when I was a kid.  It was gold in color with a white banana seat that had shiny glitter imbedded in the plastic.  To complete the manly image I had what was called a sissy bar, which is the bar that supports the back end of the banana seat and extends several feet up into the air above the rider’s head, where I could attach a flag, a banner, or my sister’s cat.  You know, its funny how the meaning of words changes.  Before I was born “gay” simply meant “happy” but now it defines your sexual preference.  Today the word sissy seems to mean a wimp, someone who is afraid of just about anything.  I can’t remember exactly but I am sure that sissy had some sort of tough guy definition in the 60’s…it must have…right?  As I look back I never thought much about the image of me riding my 3 speed golden bike down the road with a glitter banana seat and sissy bar.  I certainly wouldn’t let my boy do that today.  He’d probably get beat up twice a week.  Hmm, could this explain why Joe and Rusty, the neighborhood bullies, picked on me?  Could “sissy” have meant the same thing then as it does now?  Was I a sissy?  Nah!

            But I certainly thought that having 3 speeds was cool.  I was the only kid in the block that had a speeded bike.  I thought I was 3 times cooler, or was it groovier, than my friends.  Now all these years later I am still dealing with 3 speeds.  You may remember that there are 5 components of subluxation; loss of motion, nerve stress, muscle spasm, inflammation/scar tissue, and spinal degeneration.  I measure all 5 components at every examination and have found over my 25 years that they generally improve at 3 different speeds, what I like to call fast, slow, and glacial. 

            The fast ones are the nerve stress and inflammation.  So those are the two that we watch most closely during Initial Intensive Care, looking to see them improve by at least 50%.  In my experience it takes 50% improvement in these two components to achieve the things that people want when they first walk into my office, relief AND stabilization.  They may have relief with less improvement but the symptoms will come back in short order.  So, initial intensive care is all about improving the fast components by 50%.  The other 50% is accomplished during Reconstructive Care.

            The slow ones are range of motion and muscle spasm.  They do improve during Initial Intensive Care but since they are slower, they are more important to monitor during Reconstructive Care.  Therefore, reconstructive Care is over when the 2 fast components and 2 slow components are as good as we can get them, usually 75-90%. 

            The glacial component you might think of as your x-rays.  If you are in phase 2 of subluxation degeneration it took at least 20 years to get that way, which is glacial in human terms.  Therefore, x-ray changes are something that we monitor during ongoing Wellness Care.

            So, 5 components, 3 speeds, and 1 sissy.  That’s my office in a nutshell.

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!

    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.