My Story.

In the late 80's I was thrilled to start my career in healthcare as a Paramedic. My ultimate goal was to be a physician, and as a paramedic, I got the chance to "get my hands dirty". I loved the job. I was young, fit and strong. One afternoon, a routine emergency call changed everything. It was at the end of a long string of shifts and I was tired. No excuse for not following basic self-care protocols that could have saved my spine. I lifted an elderly lady out of her bathtub, which was not usually a problem…that is, when I lifted correctly. This day, I was sloppy and I paid dearly. I will spare you the ugly details but suffice it to say, this was my "career-lift" – the lift that nearly ended my career.

The Search

Agony. Unable to work, I was desperate to find relief for my pain. I tried everything; massage, physiotherapy, accupuncture, supplements. Everything seemed to help a little, but not enough to get me back to work. Several collegues suggested chiropractic but I wanted nothing to do with chiropractors or the back-cracking they offered. "How could cracking my back help" I would ask, – "Doesn't that just make your spine even looser? Once I start with them, they will want to keep me coming back forever – it's addictive, once you start you can’t stop". Sound familiar? Several months passed and I was still unable to work. My daily routine was to go to the gym, sit in the hot-tub for a few minutes and enjoy about twenty minutes of relief, go home and look forward to my next dip in the hot-tub. This routine went on for what seemed to be forever.

The Reckoning

Then one day as I dragged myself to the gym for my daily dip, a chiropractor decided to open a clinic IN MY GYM! The nerve! I sneered at the chiropractic office with every passing. Finally I went in and, with the biggest chip on my shoulder I could muster, asked for an assessment. When I met the doctor, I was surprised at how knowledgeable he was. I assumed that chiropractors were called "doctors" the way I saw "The Fridge Doctor" advertised in the yellow pages. I was stunned when I learned how well educated a doctor of chiropractic is. The more questions I asked, the more embarassed I became. It seemed that all of my fears and preconcieved ideas were based on nothing more than heresay, inuendo and rumor. Chiropractic, when explained, was very simple and logical.

The First Adjustment.

I was fully examined, scanned and measured. It was time for the first adjustment. I was scared to death. Trembling. Before I knew it, it was over, and what an anti-climax! All that fear and trepidation for nothing. It didn’t feel very good, but it was nothing like what I expected. It wasn’t long before the adjustments were very comfortable, even pleasant. I was back to work within three weeks. Almost 6 months had passed from the time I was injured to the time I returned to work. How I wished I had gotten over my fear of what was, in the end, the only thing that got my on my feet. This was my first exposure to chiropractic. Although I had come a long way in understanding it - I still wasn't using chiropractic correctly. The minute I was out of pain - I stopped getting adjusted.

Search and Rescue - Fractured Spine