With dramatized TV shows all over the place now, we have a pretty good idea of what a Medical School student goes through during their schooling and residencies. We hear about the different ups and downs of law students constantly reading tons of books and preparing for their Bar exams. However, does anybody really know what a student goes through to become an Upper Cervical Chiropractor? This was a question that was thought up by my mentor and really good friend Dr. Chad McIntyre of Triad Upper Cervical Clinic in Kernersville, NC. He wanted me to document my experiences as a student going through the 3.5 years of post-graduate work in order to become an Upper Cervical doctor. The program consists of 14 quarters (instead of 7 semesters), so I wrote a blog or diary entry before the start of every quarter reflecting on the past, present, and future. Looking back now, it cracks me up regarding what I decided to write about back then, but that’s where my mind and heart was at the time during the journey. The program consisted of many ups and downs, mountains and valleys, and a lot of sacrifice and time away from my loved ones. But, it was all worth it because now I have the blessing of bringing the power of Upper Cervical Care to anyone wanting to take control of their health in a natural, safe, and scientifically proven way of doing so.
It’s
good to be writing again. This means my classmates and I have concluded another
hard-working quarter at Sherman College. We are officially done with 11
quarters, and are less than nine months away from graduation! It’s all very exciting.
I had a great start to the year and once again enjoyed my clinic experience. We
only had 4 classes this quarter, so let me give you a quick rundown of what we
went through in the classroom for the past 3 months:
1)
Clinical Case Management 3
2)
Passive Rehabilitation – This is an introductory
lecture/lab course in physiotherapy covering theories, principles, and the use
of standard physiotherapy equipment used in treatment protocols and care plans.
NOTE: this is a REQUIRED class for North Carolina. This is NOT
chiropractic. We just have to learn this stuff to get licensed. It’s basically
a rip-off of Physical Therapy, and it treats the symptoms, not the PROBLEM!
3)
Practice Management- This lecture/discussion
course is designed to prepare the student for the realities of opening and
maintaining a successful practice. Sound business principles are stressed, with
emphasis on building and maintaining a referral practice. Goal setting,
planning, obtaining financing, patient management, taxes, insurance, and principles
of investment are covered. Students develop purpose statements and goals for
their practices, build an organization structure to meet their purposes.
4)
Automated Office Procedures
As
mentioned in the previous blog, my classmates and I took Part 2 and 3 of the
National Boards just the other weekend for our licensure. It was a quite the
weekend. We started on Friday at 7:45 AM, and finished our last test around
4:00 PM. Saturday and Sunday were from 8:00 AM to noon. A total of 16 hours of
testing with breaks in between of course. It was an interesting experience. It
was definitely a mind game. You have to have patience and take mini-breaks
throughout the test to keep your sanity. However, I believe it was a big
success for my classmates and I. Part 2 was actually easier than Part 1. Part
3, on the other hand, was extremely challenging and intimidating. We will get
the results back at the end of April. If we pass these two exams, we will just
have two more (September and November) board exams to go until being completely
done!
So, I have two cool patient stories this
quarter. Well, all my patients are cool, but two in particular stand out to me
as I stepped back and took time to reflect on the past three months. One
patient came in to the health center and “just gets it.” The patient’s only
complaint is that he gets bilateral sciatica running down both legs. He knew that
Upper Cervical Care is not a guaranteed cure, but he just wanted to have his
nervous system checked and make sure it is working the best it possibly can.
FYI, those are the best patients. I told him why I do what I do as an Upper
Cervical Practitioner and he was on board from day one. This particular patient
taught me WHY ITS SO IMPORTANT we set up most care plans the way we do. When
you first start under Upper Cervical Care, most patients will come into the
office twice per week or even THREE times per week for the first month to two
months. This patient had a very distinct and obvious pattern. There was never any
question when he needed to be adjusted. For the first FOUR weeks, we had to
adjust him EVERY time he came in. We would adjust, rest him for about 20-30
minutes, and then post-check him. The post-scan was straight as an arrow,
nearly EVERY time. However, he would come in the next visit and be in textbook
pattern. This process repeated itself every visit for the first month. I was starting
to question my correction on why we were clearing the scan, but not getting it to
hold. When we continued with the plan, he started holding! I haven’t made a
correction in over 5 weeks. So, in summary, it’s very important to keep your
scheduled plan of care accordingly. Upper cervical docs don’t just randomly
think every patient should come in __ amount of times per week for the rest of
their lives. It’s a PROCESS. Healing takes time. Some people walk into the
clinic and have been walking around with their head on crooked and brainstem
compromised for 30,40, or even 50+ years. It’s not always going to be a quick
fix. There are some miracle cases, but if you let your body break down and
deteriorate for decades, it will take some time to reverse all of the damage
accumulated. But, if you stick with it, the body is soooo intelligent, and your
body can be heading towards health and wellness the way it’s supposed to.
My next patient was one of those one
adjustment miracles. She has made some great progression. She went through
quite the experience. Last fall, she was in a lawnmower accident where she
drove off a 6 foot retaining wall head first, and then had the lawnmower fall
on top of her. She was knocked unconscious for 24-48 hours and suffered a
fractured right maxilla (cheek bone) that’s still inoperable to this day. Since
the accident, she has also been suffering from chronic neck pain, extreme right
shoulder pain, loss of SHORT-term memory, and the feeling of constantly being
cold. Even on warm days, the patient wore gloves and wool socks every where she
went because she constantly felt cold. Regarding the short-term memory, she
said the most significant thing she noticed was she couldn’t go to grocery
stores without a list. Before, she never needed a list to remember dozens of
items she needed. After the accident, she would just walk around the aisles and
have no clue what she was doing or trying to get. We took her x-rays, got her
specific listing to the exact degree, and gave her one correction. Nothing
happened. She said she just felt tired and wanted to go home, as she was
expecting the pain to go away instantly. I called her the following night to see
how she was doing, she said she hasn’t stopped drinking water since she left
the clinic and both of her calves cramped up all night, and then was fine the
next day. Weeks later, still clear of any brainstem interference according to
the scan; her neck, shoulder, and even facial pain has reduced significantly,
her short-term memory is back to what she said it was like before, and she
hasn’t worn gloves since that day. Pretty amazing, huh? Did I do that? Of
course not. All I did was move the bone in the right direction. God did the
rest. God enabled her body to go through the drastic changes needed to help her
regain her health. I didn’t do squat. The body is absolutely incredible
Get
your brainstem checked! It controls every function of your body; why not make
sure it’s working properly? Most importantly, get your kids checked. Kids not
only respond better to this specific work, but they hold their corrections
longer because their bodies haven’t gone through as many wear and tear
incidents as we have. Until next time, have a great Spring!
God Bless,
Josh
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