The Last Resort
She sat before me, broken, with no ideas on how to be corrected. I got the distinct impression that I was her last resort on this viscious cycle she had been riding for so long. I just finished seeing a new patient, who, in all respects, has run the full gammut of our traditional health care system.
This young woman had an accident a couple of years ago and since has been on a steady decline in health and has been ingesting a steady supply of pain killers just to function throughout the day. This woman 1 year post divorce and who has a young son, told me that she has been suffering for such a long time, thoughts of taking drastic measures have even entered her mind in the past. She has been to doctors, many, many doctors, who haven’t been able to tell her why she is feeling so poorly or why she continues this steady decline. She has been referred from specialist to specialist, with no apparent end in sight. The final diagnosis from all of those doctor visits…Fibromyalgia?
I performed my intial evaluation on this patient, I located a number of potential problem areas and I felt deep down that these dysfunctional areas where having a drastic impact on this woman’s life. After I performed my first adjustment, this hopeless woman all of a sudden looked alive again. The light shined in her eyes as if a veil had suddenly been lifted off. She told me that her pain just dropped in half following whatever I just did! For the first time in a long time, she felt relief, she felt hope.
Following my treatment she began directing a barrage of questions towards me. The questions ranged from the whys to the hows. The main one though was the one I expected…."How come no one ever found this before with me?” I couldn’t really tell her why no one ever located her problem, but I explained to her that most physicians simply treat symptoms, they never really treat causes. I am different, I look at the the cause of dysfunction, not the surface results. Seeing how this woman responded helped to reaffirm my decision to enter into this profession. Chiropractic works. Functional Medicine. The BODY works. Such simple statements, yet so powerful.
I told this patient that the road wasn’t always going to be easy, nor was it going to be quick, but we were on the right path now and we are going to continue moving forward towards her goal of getting healthy. She understood, she smiled, she thanked me. She thanked me for caring, she thanked me for explaining, she thanked me for giving her hope. It wasn’t gratitude I was looking for though, all I wanted was to be the one who could help this person.
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