Are you wary of chiropractors?\u00a0 Unfamiliar with their care?\u00a0 Well, don’t wait until your pain is too excruciating to bear.\u00a0 Let me share\u00a0my story…<\/p>\n
BACK<\/strong> in May. 2007<\/strong>, I was feverishly raking my yard.\u00a0 You know the movements: side-to-side constantly, consistently, bending to scoop up the leaves for hours at a time, etc., etc.\u00a0\u00a0 Well, this certain day I hurt myself.\u00a0 Bad.\u00a0 Believing that I easily pulled or twisted a tendon or muscle, my home remedies – the use of ice packs, and then heat via a hot tub and the use of a heating pad –\u00a0did not alleviate the pain.\u00a0 We’re talking ice-pick sharp and consistent pain under my upper left rib cage area, below the breast.<\/p>\n This happened on a Saturday.\u00a0 By Saturday evening I was ready to go the nearest hospital Emergency Room.\u00a0 Yuck.\u00a0 Instead I chose to contact a former chiropractic doctor.\u00a0 He was available!\u00a0 Although he had recently re-located further away than I wanted to go, I HAD TO GO!\u00a0 Even at that late hour on a Saturday evening, Dr. James S. helped to mildly relieve this inclusive initial throbbing of the area.<\/p>\n Days proceeded.\u00a0 Pain continued.\u00a0 Level 10 pain on the scale, it was\u00a0day-in and day-out.\u00a0 Procrastination was led by fear when I finally decided to contact my regular endocrinologist, Dr. Conrad T.\u00a0 I made an emergency appointment.\u00a0 Dr. T. and I had been acquainted through my healthcare system for a few years.\u00a0 This specific “emergency appointment”\u00a0left me sitting, uncomfortably, in\u00a0his office waiting room for three hours.\u00a0 To shorten this part of my story, Dr. T. talked me into his giving me\u00a0an injection of a numbing concoction, right into the pained area.\u00a0 OUCH!\u00a0 Well, it numbed up immediately.\u00a0 Phew!\u00a0 I grit my teeth so hard, they hurt.<\/p>\n Finally relieved, the pain returned an hour and twenty minutes later.\u00a0 Calling Dr. T.’s office once again, I had an appointment the following week.\u00a0 My main purpose\u00a0to see him, again, was to request orders for an MRI as well as get a pain medication.\u00a0 Well, that appointment was deflated if only due to my having to wait another two hours while in his office.\u00a0 Angry and in pain, I left.\u00a0 I did not want to sit there for another 2 – 3 hours!\u00a0 I never went back to his office again – for anything!<\/p>\n Having done research to learn about the area\u00a0where the\u00a0pain\u00a0generated, I began calling it “my spleen pain” because I narrowed the pain to be\u00a0precisely in that area.\u00a0 In my frightened state of anxiety, I also suspected that something might be wrong with my pancreas.\u00a0 OMG!<\/p>\n Days go by…In the interim, I had already made a big decision to become involved with the world-renowned University of California, Davis, Medical Facility (UC Davis).\u00a0 Hoping to\u00a0make an appointment with an acclaimed Endocrinologist and Professor, Dr. Thomas A., that did not happen.\u00a0 You see, my rationale for making this BIG decision had BIG hopes.\u00a0 I filled my brain full of bright and shiny ideas of being cured of an “uncommon spleen malfunction.”\u00a0 This constant pain had me thinking – a lot!<\/p>\n INSTEAD <\/strong>of seeing the head-honcho, I was scuttled to meet with Dr. Allen T., a resident intern.\u00a0 Hmm.\u00a0 Realizing that UC Davis is an academic hospital, getting to the top dog was strongly<\/span> discouraged.\u00a0 Disappointing at best.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meeting Dr. Allen T. was delightful enough.\u00a0 My first impressions were that he is young, ambitious, a listener, and a newbie = wanting to make a good impression with his peers and supervising physicians.\u00a0 Mm hm.\u00a0 After introductions and pain descriptions with him asking me certain questions, Dr. Allen T. invited Dr. Kevin K. into the examination room.\u00a0 Although poked and rubbed once again, nothing was found.\u00a0 Woe-is-me.<\/p>\n A requested MRI was denied, again, along with a denied request for an X-ray.\u00a0 Although I believe an X-ray would be useless because of the soft tissue involved, I also believed with hope that anything would help!\u00a0 Happily, a “CT Abdomen with Contrast” was arranged and performed a week later.\u00a0 It showed nothing pertaining to this<\/em> specific pain.\u00a0 How can that be?!\u00a0 However, it did show other things<\/em>.\u00a0 These “other things” were not addressed but totally ignored such as an ovarian cyst and a displaced disk!\u00a0 It appalls me that nothing, nothing, nothing was said to address these issues.\u00a0 I don’t get it!\u00a0 This consistent ignorance has always lead me to do my own research for cause and effect.\u00a0 Without the internet as a research unit, I would have to live in a library or form one of my own!\u00a0 information is knowledge!\u00a0 But, one thing at a time.\u00a0 I need to focus on this constant “spleen pain.”<\/p>\n THROUGHOUT<\/strong>\u00a0the next year and a half, the original pain persisted.\u00a0 As described to anyone who would listen to me, medical personnel or otherwise, it felt like a\u00a0knot, a golf\u00a0ball, under my front left rib cage with numbing of the whole left rib area.\u00a0 The pain\u00a0was stronger\u00a0when I ate, no matter what I ate.<\/p>\n At this juncture, I had seen six – no eight – different medical doctors at the UC Davis facility concerning this painful issue.\u00a0 Along with Drs. Allen T. and Kevin K., there were\u00a0Drs. Allen T. with\u00a0R; then Allen T. with Dr. O; then Allen T. with ‘can’t remember his name!’<\/p>\n Next, a painful emergency rib situation brought me to and through an ‘urgent care’ appointment at UC Davis once again.\u00a0 I had an attack\u00a0of that “spleen pain” again.\u00a0 On a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being the worst, this pain wa a 10, sharp and distinct without cause.\u00a0 It felt like the thin sharpness of an ice pick being pushed under my ribs.\u00a0 The wait was not as long as I expected, wherein\u00a0I met by\u00a0Dr. G. (aka: #9). After an initial examination once again, she was stymied and said she would have to refer and confer with Dr. H. (aka: #10).\u00a0<\/p>\n To conclude that day<\/em>, it was decided, and concurred that I have something know as “gastroporesis.”\u00a0\u00a0Therein, a prescription was written up for 5 mg of ‘Reglan’ to be taken 30 minutes before each meal.<\/p>\n I did not like hearing that.\u00a0 I am not a pill taker.\u00a0 “Also,” began Dr. H. “I’ve put you down to have a Barium CT Scan.\u00a0 This will show what’s going on in that specific area.”<\/p>\n “Hallelujah!” I wanted to scream!\u00a0 “Finally, a doctor that believes me, that wants to find out specifically what this pain is!”<\/p>\n Two weeks go by before reporting to the UC Davis Medical Center via an appointment\u00a0for this CT.\u00a0 I arrived early with hopes of walking to a nearby restaurant for a quick breakfast.\u00a0 A breakfast burrito\u00a0was on my mind!\u00a0 Anyway, once inside, an attendant started explaining that he “will fix me some eggs and toast.\u00a0 As soon as I’m done eating, the test will begin.”\u00a0 I was shocked!\u00a0 Here I was expecting a dye injection or the necessity of drinking the nasty, chalky tasting barium when that was not the case at all.\u00a0 Unbeknownst to me, the test ended up being a “gamma test.”<\/p>\n I told the attendant that I had not eaten.\u00a0\u00a0If I did, what would be the problem?\u00a0 “We wouldn’t be able to do the test.\u00a0 You’d have to reschedule and come back.\u00a0 That would\u00a0take another 6 – 8 weeks.”\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Definitely a case of “divine intervention<\/em>.”<\/p>\n You see, while the food is ingested and on its way through the esophagus to the upper intestine to the stomach etcetera, I had to stand in front of a large metal scan that video-taped all this digestive action.\u00a0 Painless and interesting, it bothers me to know that I was not told that that was going to happen.\u00a0 Good thing I did not eat before leaving the house!\u00a0 “Not eating” is a requirement for this test – that I was uninformed about!!!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And there were three parts to this scan, each scanning\u00a045 minutes apart, with the actual scan lasting 10 minutes, while I was in a standing position.\u00a0<\/p>\n AFTER<\/strong>\u00a0 all that, the test result was negative – nothing was wrong or out-of-place.\u00a0 It showed nothing unusual!\u00a0 That’s good and bad as far as I was concerned.\u00a0 Bad because I still do not – nobody knew – what is the cause of this spleen pain?!<\/em><\/p>\n Wait, this story gets better….<\/p>\n Once again, personal research lead me to ingest five capsules of Vitamin E, two capsules of Evening Primrose Oil, and another two capsules of White Willow Bark.\u00a0 Drinking Aloe Vera juice, readily available in gallon jugs at health food stores, is a natural substance.\u00a0 It tastes terrible but its benefits are just that – beneficial – for a persons’ immune system.\u00a0<\/p>\n Still through UC Davis, I was told to see an endocrinologist.\u00a0\u00a0 “Okay,” I said, “hook me up with one here.”\u00a0 The response – from an attending\u00a0physician was “we do not have any endocrinologists\u00a0here.\u00a0 You will have to find one on your own.”\u00a0 WHAT?!\u00a0 How unbelievable is that?!\u00a0 I suppressed my tongue and left, defeated in the fight for pain cause, treatment and hopeful relief.\u00a0 I never went back and hope I will never have to!<\/p>\n Again through personal research, I\u00a0located an endocrinologist, a female as preferred, Dr. Adeela A. Well, she was stumped to hear about my “spleen pain.”\u00a0 She told me to find a “General Practitioner.”\u00a0 I did, Dr. Jude W., who was also stumped but ordered X-rays anyway.\u00a0 They did not show anything once again!<\/p>\n How many doctors is this now?\u00a0 I lost track.<\/p>\n Discussing this with my friend, Libby, who is a masseuse at a chiropractor’s office, she urged me to make an appointment with a chiropractor\u00a0at the Oak Point Chiropractic center.\u00a0 I did.\u00a0 Meeting with Dr. Mike\u00a0S., he\u00a0initially suggested that the pain could be due to a pulled\u00a0abdominal muscle with a fractured cartilage located in the area of the rib where the pain was most persistent and prevalent.\u00a0 Sounded good to me!\u00a0 Made sense.\u00a0 My mind was actually put at ease thinking that this is curable as opposed to having a gastrointestinal complication or worse, a spleen or pancreas problem.<\/p>\n On\u00a0the pain scale of 1 – 10, I\u00a0walked into Dr. Mike’s office with an eight<\/em>.\u00a0 During the course of my initial visits over a two-week period, twice a week, the pain subsided altogether with occasional bouts no stronger that a two<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 That was autumn of 2011.\u00a0\u00a0I continued chiropractic visits with him over the course of many months leading into 2012.\u00a0\u00a0 Result?\u00a0 The pain is gone.\u00a0 Let me repeat that: THE PAIN IS GONE<\/strong>!\u00a0 After consulting with fourteen western medical physicians, this chiropractor\u00a0helped.\u00a0 His care and knowledge\u00a0also suppressed the lower back pain due to\u00a0the ovarian cyst\u00a0and displaced disk.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Believe it.\u00a0 Lesson learned: chiropractic health care will be first and foremost from now on when my body gets in trouble, when it screams in pain for relief.<\/p>\n Thank you.<\/p>\n A. K. Buckroth, mydiabeticsoul.com<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are you wary of chiropractors?\u00a0 Unfamiliar with their care?\u00a0 Well, don’t wait until your pain is too excruciating to bear.\u00a0 Let me share\u00a0my story… BACK in May. 2007, I was feverishly raking my yard.\u00a0 You know the movements: side-to-side constantly, … Continue reading