Dawn Of The Upper Cervical Miracle
“Takes a licking but keeps on ticking”
I have always been very active. I’m part of what I believe to be the last generation of free-range kids. We spent the days riding our bikes, climbing trees and playing sports. We beat up our bodies quite a bit just being kids. I remember hitting trees while sledding, flipping over the handlebars of my bike, falling out of trees and down hills while playing. I was lucky enough to get to play sports with all the older kids in the neighborhood because I was always as tall as kids 4-5 years older than me. So I got a free pass on the being younger thing. Unfortunately for me, I was still usually the runt of the group, so the tackle football games that we played without pads really were pretty brutal. By the time I was a teenager my sports activities for the most part were focused on basketball. And even through in some circles, basketball is considered a “non-contact sport” it is anything but. Over the years, I have lost count of the number of times I have been flipped on my head while playing basketball and the worst of which I ended up with a full blown concussion. An unpleasant experience to say the least.
“I’m falling apart”
So what does that have to do with anything? Well, I bring all that up because it is pertinent to my story. You see, by the time I was 17 years old my back was in such bad shape that I couldn’t walk around the mall without sitting on a bench next to the 75 year-old mall-walker and take a break. By the end of my senior year of high-school, I had to come to grips with the fact that I would never be able to play college basketball because my body was quitting on me. And by the time I was a freshman in college I developed headaches so severe that no amount of tylenol could touch them and it was all I could do just to show up to class and take notes.
“It my bad genes”
The strange thing is that I accepted the fact that I had a bad back. After all, my mom has a bad back and I’m her son. It’s probably genetic. I even accepted the fact that I couldn’t play basketball any more. I knew a bunch of guys that had their basketball dreams ended by injury. It happens a lot. But the headaches, those were a different story. They were the first health problem that I ever had that couldn’t be helped by a pill or explained away as bad genes. I was desperate, out of options and my stomach couldn’t take much more of the tylenol binge I was on.
“I don’t want to go to the Chiropractor”
Ultimately, I ended up in a Chiropractors office. Now this was not my first choice. Actually it was my last choice but I was out of options and the medication was NOT working. Honestly, I don’t remember how long it took before I started to notice changes but I do remember being surprised by the fact that my headaches went away. I really wasn’t expecting it to work. But I was impressed so much by my Chiropractic experience that I decided to be a Chiropractor.
“My time on the floor”
Unfortunately, even while attending chiropractic college I had to maintain a very high frequency of adjustments to keep my headaches at bay. And it didn’t seem to matter how many adjustments I got, my back was getting worse and worse. I was getting adjusted multiple times per day and was pretty much in constant pain that culminated into a full blown disc herniation. Prior to that, I had never been the type of person who had a lot of sympathy for people who said they spent the entire weekend on the floor and were unable to get up. I always thought they were just being weak…that is until I spent an entire weekend on the floor, unable to get up. I can’t say I’m happy I had that experience, but I can say it gave me some perspective and it’s often a good thing when people gain perspective.
“Upper What?”
When I enrolled in Chiropractic college I really didn’t have any idea what I would ultimately be doing in practice. Like many chiropractic students and even Chiropractors, I had never even heard of Upper Cervical so that was not anywhere in my plans. I had actually completed about 75% of my Chiropractic college education when I was first introduced to Upper Cervical. A friend of mine suggested that we take an Upper Cervical intro class because he had been researching the history of Chiropractic and had found that Upper Cervical played a significant part. It seemed like a good enough reason for me, so I signed up for the class and began a life changing journey into the world of Upper Cervical.
“Stop getting adjusted”
Once I decided to take a class about Upper Cervical, my first mission was to find a local doctor who practiced the procedure. I needed to find out more. And it turns out that is a much harder task than I originally thought it would be. There really aren’t that many Upper Cervical doctors around. But I did end up finding a local doctor that was willing to meet with me and help answer some of my questions. It turns out that that day was a pivotal point in my life. I remember walking away from that meeting simply blown away. I was thinking, “This stuff really makes a lot of sense!” I decided that day that I was going to practice Upper Cervical once I got out of school and I had decided that without ever having received an Upper Cervical correction. Now I did talk to the doctor about getting under his care so I could experience Upper Cervical for myself. Thankfully, there’s sort of an unwritten code for broke Chiropractic students that allows us to get care for either free or nearly free. The doctor told me that he would allow me to be his patient if I was willing to follow his recommendations. I agreed and the first thing he told me was that I was going to have to stop getting adjusted. STOP WHAT?!?! He explained to me that continuing to get my full spine adjusted on a regular basis would keep my Upper Cervical corrections from holding and that I would continue to need to be adjusted multiple times per day to stay out of pain. So I reluctantly agreed, and discontinued any full spine Chiropractic care.
“I’m Better”
My very first “real” Upper Cervical correction was interesting. I say “real” one because I had allowed some fellow Upper Cervical students to practice on me before I had even had a correction from a practicing doctor. I’m pretty sure I didn’t cause any lasting damage from those early corrections but those experiences are mostly filed away under the title of “what NOT to do” instead of the real thing. Now that I am in practice, I have heard a lot of stories of what people have experienced after their first correction. Some of the stories are nothing short of miraculous, but my story is not. I didn’t even like my first correction. Not only did I not like it, but I didn’t notice anything different from it either. NOTHING. I didn’t feel better. I didn’t feel worse. I didn’t feel anything. It was a little disappointing but I had made the commitment to follow through with care and I was going to do that. I don’t ever remember having any big changes in my health. I remember after having been under care for several months that it dawned on me that I was getting better. I wasn’t having the back pain that I always had. My ribs weren’t “going out” like they always did. I didn’t need to wear the orthotics in my shoes like I always had. I wasn’t having my headaches. And I wasn’t getting adjusted every day either. Actually, compared to before I started Upper Cervical Care, I was hardly being adjusted at all. At times, I was going weeks between my corrections. So I was getting less of my spine adjusted, I was getting adjusted much less often and it resulted in me doing far better than I had ever done before. Now THAT’S IMPRESSIVE!
“Every Day Life”
At times I take for granted all the amazing things that have happened since I have been in practice. I know that I expect people to get well. I expect to be able to help every one of my patients. This may be an oversimplification but I know the body can do some amazing things when it’s working right and I know that Upper Cervical Care does an amazing job of getting the body working right. I love what I do, but I do wish there was a way that I could flip a switch that would let people understand the extent to which Upper Cervical Care can help them live up to their health potential. I don’t believe for a second that it is a cure all. But I do believe it is a help all. Every person alive is better off with a neurologically and structurally balanced body. And for those that are willing to be opened minded to a new approach to health will discover a life-changing form of health care in Upper Cervical.
-Dr. Jerry Kennedy, DC
