I shouldn't say a "chiropractor won", really. What I should say is that my body's natural ability to be healthy won. He would even agree with that amendment. He's a good guy, on top of a skilled chiropractor--but he really was just a "means to an end," just as I am.
People often ask "Dr. Sheena, why do you do what you do?" Sometimes I just tell people why I do what I do because it's exciting to me. It is an honest testament to what is possible with natural health care. I like to let people know so they have hope, but I also love to remind myself that I still have a lot of people to reach.
So, here is a simplified version of my story.
I was about 23 years old. I was in my final semester of undergraduate study at the University of Pittsburgh. I was paying for my college life with a few grants, a couple non-conventional part time jobs, and a huge amount of student loans. I did my best to stay away, and detached, from my family, at that point. I had been very hard on my body as a teenager and young adult, emotionally, physically, and chemically. Other people had been hard on my body, emotionally, physically, and chemically, my entire life. Sometimes I knew I was damaging myself, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes other's knew they were hurting me, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes I knew others were injuring me, sometimes I didn't. Regardless of the big and small damages done to my wellbeing over time, I hit a breaking point in my early 20's that changed my life, and its course, entirely.
It started with some back and neck pain. When it got to a point where the discomfort was too uncomfortable, I did what I had always done, and what had been the only thing my family had ever done--I went to my Medical doctor. I told her that I was having neck and back pain. She prescribed me some pain relievers and muscle relaxers. I had the prescription filled and used the drugs that my family medical physician offered as a solution for said health complaint, just as I had every other time I had a health complaint for which she exclusively suggested medications. I felt better after a few days, and went about life as usual.
A couple weeks later, the back and neck pain returned. This time, though, it felt more severe. The ache was deeper and I had a really hard time moving or doing anything I needed to do. I headed back to my MD, and told her what I was experiencing. She said she could offer more of the same prescriptions. When I asked what was wrong with me, she said I probably had pulled muscles, and the only thing she could do is give me pain relievers and muscle relaxers. When I asked if the pulled muscles would get better, she said probably. So, off I went, refilled the pills, and took the pills, and I got better….mostly anyway. I still didn't feel like my "pulled muscles" healed this time. I still had sharp "catches" when I moved certain ways, but I could function better. So, I went back to doing as I had been doing, just feeling not-so-symptom free.
Then, one day, I woke up and tried to move in my bed. It was a class day. I had a bus to catch, to catch another bus, so I could walk all over campus to sit in class and write research papers all day. But, the thing is, I couldn't move. Rather, when I just tried to move any part of my body or head to get out of bed, sharp shooting pain went down my neck and spine, down my arms, and down my legs. The pain was so severe that I would have to not move to not feel it. I was terrified.
I called out for my boyfriend at the time, who was in the bathroom, that I couldn't move, and that I had excruciating pain. I don't think he really believed me at first, but the tears and the screaming soon let him know it was no joke. I said, "I have to get to class. This can't happen." I suggested he help me up and out of bed, and maybe I could feel better and move around like that. When he tried, and I tried again, all I could do was scream, and I just had to lie there in bed some more.
Neither of us could figure out what to do. I said I'd have to get to the the doctor's office if I were to get more pills. I said I can't make it, and even if I did, what could she do for me? We talked about calling an ambulance, and going to the hospital. Then, out of the far corner of my mind, "chiropractor" came up. I have no idea how, or why, really, because no one in my family ever went to one or talked about it as a reasonable option for anything. The only time anyone talked about it was my mother, who at one time in passing, talked about one of her aunts who "went to the chiropractor for everything." She told me that if someone had the hiccups, or a cold, her aunt would say "go to the chiropractor!" That certainly wasn't why, as I lay in bed unable to move without devastating pain, I considered a chiropractor. I had never even met this distant great-aunt who had passed away years before I was born. I can only guess that I heard somewhere at sometime in my life that people go to chiropractors when they have back pain. I really don't know, but I asked out loud, "could a chiropractor maybe help me?" Maybe, he said. So I lay there, and decided that I would wait, rest, and keep trying to sit up, so I could use a phone book and a phone, eventually.
Eventually, I could do just that. Really…just that. I leafed through the Yellow Pages and called the first Chiropractor I found that seemed close-ish. He was in the next town over, maybe a 10 minute drive away. I was panicked and crying a little when I made the call. The receptionist answered and I barfed my situation in her ear and she calmly reassured me that she was sure the chiropractor at her office could help. We didn't bother to set appointments; we just agreed that I would try to get there that day, as soon as I could.
The phone call itself didn't change anything besides give me hope. Since I couldn't get up and walk, my boyfriend was relegated to picking me up, carrying me down the stairs of our apartment building, and into the car. He drove me to the office, carried me out of the car, into the elevator, and down the hall into the chiropractor's office. Even that was painful, but I couldn't have made it without him, and I am glad he was strong enough, and willing, to do that. I'm still grateful for that gesture, even though we have long since parted ways.
I think there was paper work when we got there, and there were x-rays…but most of that is a blur. I remember the chiropractor saying "just give me a little time, and we'll see what we can do." So I sat in the waiting room, in pain, but with unfounded faith that this guy just may help me. He didn't take long, really. He came out and showed me my x-rays. I didn't know much back then about spines, but he showed me a part of my spine that was leaning way far off from the rest of it, and said that was my main problem, and that he could help. HE COULD HELP.
Amazingly, he said he could do something that same day to help my problem. That, I know now, is not always the case with patients. I was so thrilled to have someone say "THIS is what's wrong" and "THIS is what we are going to do to fix it," I couldn't wait to have my misalignments adjusted. And that he did. As I tell all my patients: I was carried into his office, and I walked out. As if that were not amazing enough, when I followed his recommendations and followed his protocol (regular adjustment visits with particular exercises at home), I could feel my spine healing. As if that were not incredible enough, over the weeks and months that I continued my care, I noticed that my asthma and allergies got better. My sinuses cleared up, and I was sleeping better. I had more energy, my menstrual periods normalized, I had an elevated mood, and I was losing weight. All I did was show up for 10 minutes at the chiropractor's for a quick evaluation and adjustments, and go home and do simple work-outs, and all this could happen?
I, on an innocent whim, asked Dr. Brent one day "Hey, you know, I feel like my asthma isn't as bad as it used to be, and I just can think more clearly than before, is it possible that the chiropractic can be connected to that?" "Of course!" he said, "when your spine is lined up and moving right, everything works better."
And that, my friends, is it. I had to do this. I had to give this to others, because heaven knows Medicine did nothing for ANY of those issues that I had, besides the drugs, that gave no lasting results. In most cases, the results I did get from drugs were with their own haze, or side effects. I had spent my childhood as "the sick kid," always with strep throat, at home taking antibiotics, who can't run or play outside because of her asthma. Then I was the teen with depression and abnormally heavy and odd-timed periods, who needed more meds. I had shots, pills, syrups, and inhalers…but finally, a solution came my way after decades, where the side effect was simply a spine aligned allowing for better brain-body communication. Back to school I went. I got my prerequisites, enrolled in grad school on the other side of the country, and there was no turning back. I couldn't "unfeel" this amazing change in my life. By the time I was in chiropractic school, mind you, I was lean, fit, running and biking all over the Bay Area. The only pharmaceutical I ever used was an albuterol inhaler rarely (in fact, it lasted me 5 years, that's how little I used it).
So, here I am, giving it back to a world who is over medicated and underserved. I don't think that my spinal misalignments were the root cause to all my ailments as a baby, child, or young adult (I have less than optimal genetics, a dysfunctional childhood upbringing, Medically-implemented pharmaceutical injuries, and a prior history of eating poorly, to largely thank, too), but I do know that when I am diligent with my chiropractic care, I feel vibrant, able to meet life's challenges, and excited to do more, and be more. It's become so much more than pain regulation. It's about being at my best. For my patients, too, I always try to help them be at their best. Some of them just want to "not hurt". Some want to be fine-tuned machines. Either way, I do what I do because Chiropractic saves lives. It certainly saved mine. I don't think I'd be here today writing anything like this if I would not have been "blessed" with the debilitating pain I had over 10 years ago, and had some sense to drag myself into the unknown to try something different.
Insanity, they say, is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. I hope people will one by one keep saying "No!" to the insanity, realize that life can be SO MUCH MORE, and then give a chiropractor a call. It doesn't have to be me, but wise up and do something crazy this time!
Yours in Health and Harmony,
Dr. Sheena Boyd, BA, DC
Call Dr. Sheena today 208.557.3640
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