The need to modify my technique was made clear to me with my first patient in my new office in 1987. She was 36-years-old, walked with a cane, had persistent swollen legs and ankles, had not liked the “cracking” type of manipulation and was now giving up on the Activator Technique as ineffective.

Before I went to the chiropractic college, I was in the residential remodeling business. I was a superintendent of construction for a large firm. I knew all the trades, having worked my way up the ladder (ahem), so although I no longer had my tool belt on, I was telling people what to do. I had critical thinking skills, and it was now time to apply them.

Going into an older home to do renovation and upgrading is quite different from new construction; a different approach is required with different tools and skills. Delicate work is needed to work on older homes. Not that 36 is old, but having had 20 years of instability and dysfunction made her a complex case. Everyone in her past had ascribed her problems to the spine, but they hadn’t even evaluated her knees and ankles.

I had taken a series of Extremity Adjusting classes in the College curriculum but also had gone to a number of weekend seminars on the subject. I felt none of them had prepared me for someone with chronically swollen lower legs with an obvious joint dysfunction of the ankles and feet. Big yanking and distraction-type manipulations were not an option for her, since she was too sensitive.

I was trained in Chiropractic Biophysics, which does not offer extremity protocols. All the extremity protocols are done to the mirror image of the subluxation to restore alignment. I could see her lower limbs were deformed and inflamed and in need of intervention. I knew there was a building code to the body and my goal became to reduce the building code violations (reduce the subluxations). So that is what I did. She taught me a lot, as did all the patients that have followed. I seem to collect patients whose stories are terrible except for their will and drive to keep working and get better. Hip replacements gone bad, failed back surgeries… you name it, they have come through my doors. I am forever honored and grateful for their willingness to let me help them achieve better functioning and quality of life.

That first patient was off the cane in three weeks, but she needed it again, 23 years later, in her final days when she was in chemotherapy, to keep herself steady as she walked with terrible weakness.

Every so often I hear the words, “It’s a miracle! Thank you, Doc!” to which I reply, “I don’t do miracles. That’s God’s job.” The body wants to heal.  The body has a building code. I simply find the building code violations and correct them.