The Adjustment That Shook Me
Hello and Welcome to my Blog!
So far in my blog I have been explaining a lot of WHY I do what I do and I have shared the information behind my decision making as a business owner and a doctor. I am still going to talk about my “WHY” again, but this time from my perspective as a patient. I think it is important to share parts of my journey with patients so that they know I have “been there” too. People usually see me as this hyperactive and positive person, but there was a time I had no hope. I never thought I would live again without debilitating migraines, shoulder pain, back pain, arm pain, hand pain, elbow pain, ankle pain, you name it. The list of traumas to my body was described to me as a “novel” by another chiropractor I started seeing a few months ago after a car accident. I was “pretty messed up”. Patients I work with are also surprised when I tell them that I have had a similar injury or experience as them because I look healthy. Looks can be deceiving and it took a lot of time, effort, and believing in my body’s ability to heal again before getting to this point.
I often tell my patients that I don’t recommend any products I haven’t tried myself, and I don’t adjust people in a way that I personally find uncomfortable or not effective. I have seen over 50 different chiropractors since my first adjustment in 2015. I have had a variety of adjusting techniques used, months of physical therapy, and numerous modalities used in the attempt to heal my body from years of physical and emotional trauma. I use all these same techniques, rehab protocols, and modalities with my own patients today. However, out of all of these experiences with treatment, there was one adjustment that changed my whole perspective; my perspective on what an adjustment feels like, what it does to the body, and how the body heals itself after an adjustment. Let me take you back to that day….
It was my first semester at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa. As a student, you can go to the student clinic and get assigned a student intern and a staff doctor to oversee your chiropractic care at school. There were different pods that had different specialties and interns focusing on specific techniques. My first intern was a Gonstead practitioner and that technique would always create a loud “crack” and sounded impressive, but as I left the office and turned my head to look both ways before crossing the street, I would hear a “pop” and my neck would misalign again and the pain would come back. A few months of that not working and my staff doctor reassigned me to a fellow rugby intern named Sarah. Sarah taught me how to adjust the neck during technique nights, how to have bedside manner, the importance of a diagnostic and physical exam, and that empathy is your greatest gift. She was also the intern who discovered my double occiput misalignment.
For those of you who don’t know, the occiput (outlined in red) is the bone in the back of the skull that articulates with the first vertebra in your neck (C1 outlined in green). The spinal cord exits the brain through this bone and your cerebellum rests in this area as well. A misalignment of the occiput results in conditions such as occipital neuralgia, TMJ, migraines, and can compress the pons and medulla of the spinal cord and suppress a variety of body functions. I was punted in the back of the head by a rugby player a few years prior and was knocked out. When Sarah performed what’s called an “Activator check”, she found out that my occiput was misaligned on both sides. Literally my head was not on straight!
This was not a common misalignment and Sarah had no idea at this point how to adjust such a thing, so in comes Dr. Quist. Dr. Quist confirmed Sarah's findings and decided the best adjustment for me would be a double occiput with a cervical drop technique. This involves placing the patient facedown and using a drop head piece to create enough speed, and therefore force, to lift the occiput and realign both sides at the same time. As soon as the adjustment was performed, I felt a violent shiver go down my whole body that brought with it a relief I have never experienced before. I didn’t realize how much pain I was in until it was gone for that brief moment. Then, I burst into tears and uncontrollably sobed for over 30 minutes. Man that was embarrassing.
I could NOT stop myself from crying. Through my sobs I was able to ask Dr. Quist “What the heck did you do to me? I can’t stop crying. I hate crying! I’m a robot and I never cry! Why won’t this leaking from my eyes stop!”. His explanation changed my understanding of the adjustment and its influence over the nervous system forever. He explained to me that my body has been stuck in ”fight and flight” mode for so long, my body was no longer able to access the “rest and digest” system. “When your body is stuck in this pattern, you cannot process emotion, so when I adjusted your occiput, we triggered the parasympathetic nervous system to function again and NOW your body can heal from trauma, emotional and physical. So you might cry a lot and process a lot over the next few days.” - Dr. Quist
So you’re saying that my brain has been broken too, not just my body? My inability to feel emotion wasn’t me being a robot person? I had felt so disconnected from my emotions for so long, it took me a long time to re-learn what feelings are in general. I had also become disconnected from my body due to the amount of pain I was in. It was always easier to ignore it than feel any of it. After that adjustment I realized that I can’t heal and be disconnected at the same time. I can’t ignore my emotional or physical traumas. I have to accept that pain and emotion are signals from my body that are telling me to “pay attention”. After that adjustment my migraines occurred less frequently, were less severe, and I stopped having IBS symptoms and started having a regular period for the first time in my life. PT started to actually work, and I felt like I actually had some kind of control over my body again. I felt like life had returned to my body and pain no longer ruled all; this allowed some room for joy for the first time in years.
The rest of my healing journey consisted of years of PT, adjusting, surgeries, and therapy, but this one adjustment was the beginning of my hope. I wasn’t destined to be broken forever and it just took the right person, finding the right adjustment to bring me back to life. I realized an adjustment can be for more than just pain. It is a way to reconnect to ourselves, our thoughts, feelings, emotions, personality, fears, pain, and joy. I feel like I preach this, but we are one being, with one heart, mind, body, and spirit. The moment we stop treating these things individually and start treating the person as a whole is when the real healing can begin. I use these same Activator checks that served me well with my own patient's, to ask their body what adjustment they need. I talk to them about their stress, their fears, their hopes, the future. I discuss philosophy, parenting, self-love, nutrition, at home PT, and anything else that they need. I discuss past traumas, emotional and physical and co-manage with therapists, personal trainers, physical therapists, and other professionals. I learned from that adjustment that pain is just the distraction that keeps you from realizing the deeper hurts that need healing. I also learned that with one adjustment, someone's life can be changed forever. Every adjustment is an opportunity for the body to heal and become whole again.
Feel well and do good,
ADIO
Dr. Tabetha Super