Spinal The
COLUMN JAN 2018
860.644.2437 WWW.FUNCTIONFORLIFE.COM When All Else Fails, We’re There to Help
Mrs. Stroud
I n the past few years, I’ve seen a steady increase in the number of patients who are desperate for relief. Usually, these patients have tried nearly every treatment under the sun and been bounced between an array of different medical experts, only to find their pain stubbornly persisting. I find it incredibly gratifying to help these people, who have nearly lost hope for a pain-free life, who’ve been told by others that their problem is incurable or manageable only through a huge pile of daily pills. There’s one case I’m particularly proud of which I believe truly encapsulates the meaning behind the work I do. A couple years back, a patient in her mid-40s came in with a few serious health concerns. She had worked for a printing company for a long time, until one day, while trying to fix a machine that had short-circuited, she was electrocuted. The event did immediate damage to her nervous system, and within three days, she was experiencing an array of completely debilitating symptoms. First, her hearing began to give out. Then she started to have episodes of intense pressure behind her eyes. Eventually, this led to migraines, accompanied by a stabbing pain in her skull and an intense aversion to light and noise. Performing everyday tasks became almost impossible. No matter which doctor she saw, nobody was able to determine the root cause of her neurological distress. All they could offer were medications, which, while they certainly helped mitigate the painful migraines, failed to provide any meaningful respite from the struggle she was living with daily. Over the next few months and many more tests, they told her that she would probably never be able to work again, and that she’d have to keep taking these drugs for the rest of her life.
her story, and her frustrations. It turned out she’d been reluctant to come into the office at all, as she was afraid of chiropractors, but her husband had been seeing me for some time and had encouraged her to let me investigate. I determined that during her electrocution, the current had caused severe muscle spasms, particularly in her neck and shoulders. As a result, the nerves at the base of her skull had become pinched, obstructing the regular operation of her nervous system. Mindful of her apprehension toward chiropractors, I put her on a nonaggressive treatment plan. For the first three months of treatment, she came in about three times a week, and I’d perform a few adjustments, steadily easing the pressure off her spine and nervous system. Gradually, her symptoms started to disappear. First, the headaches came with less frequency, then less intensity, then not at all. The pressure behind her eyes vanished, and her back began to recover. Over the next year and a half, her body returned almost completely to normal, allowing her to go back not only to work, but to resume her studies in school. She quit the medication and stepped back into her normal, everyday life. Stories like this are the reason I became a chiropractor. That patient is still going strong, coming in every two weeks to maintain her condition. She and her family are incredibly grateful, and their kind words mean the world. I’m just happy to work in a profession in which I get to help people get back to their ordinary lives. -Dr. Chris Colby
After about a month of this, the patient made her way to South Windsor Neck & Back, where I listened carefully to her descriptions of the painful episodes,
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