Looking for answers

Last week, I talked about being released to lead a “normal” life at age 12. Although my hands and foot had been corrected from a medical standpoint, I was still having complaints. Here are just a few examples of what I had to deal with (it goes without saying, this was before I discovered chiropractic care!):

I had a sharp pain in my right foot every time I ran, and the range of motion in my foot was severely compromised.

The muscles in my lower leg were suffering from atrophy even though I was playing 3 sports.

My shoulder blades were uneven, and I felt tingling down my left arm daily. I also couldn't turn my head as far on the left compared to the right.

I was getting no answers from medical doctors for these problems. I was told that I'd "probably grow out of it." One of my orthopedic surgeons recommended that I take Ibuprofen for my daily foot pain at 14 YEARS OLD. That seemed like a bad idea for my internal organs over a lifetime, so I decided to quit taking them after a couple weeks.

At 16, I had an X-ray taken of my foot because I continued to have pain during exercise. At that point, I had already torn the ACL in my right knee playing soccer. My pediatric orthopedic specialist told me that if I didn't slow down from playing sports, I'd be in a wheelchair by age forty.

When I decided to stop playing soccer, the assistant soccer coach said I stopped pushing myself. I don't blame him for saying that. During the season, I kept the severity of my problem under wraps so that I could keep playing. I didn't want anyone thinking I needed special treatment because I'm limb-different.

While I’ll talk more later what happened when I discovered chiropractic, my experiences after being “cleared” were what led me seek a different type of healing and what – ultimately – led me to become a chiropractor.