Friday October 10th

I know that today is Wednesday October 15th, but this blog is about Friday! This a quick review of last Friday and a few of the patients that I saw.

Friday, October 10th

46 individual patient visits to the chiropractor (me).

1 case of 35 year old female:
The dentist Anna, brought down a female patient that was supposed to get some needed dental work done. She was unable to lie down in the dental chair due to significant neck pain. She was suffering from a torticollis that was preventing her from moving her neck without a sharp pain. I began working on her cervical musculature and adjusted cervical vertebrae that was fixed preventing left rotation of the C5/C6 cervical units. After 10 minutes of work the patient had nearly perfect range of motion and was able to go to the dentist comfortably. I was touched to be told by Scarlet, the lead dentist, that this young women told her that she believed that I was in Honduras due to her prayers.

A 40 year old female with wrist pain:
This patient had injured her wrist 4 months ago. She told me that she had ‘sprained’ her wrist. She had visible inflammation present and upon light palpation the patient would recoil due to the pain. I tested her wrist reaction to vibration and upon placement of the tuning fork on the distal ulna she had a significant sharp pain. This was indicative of a cortical break in her wrist bones as vibration will cause the sharp pain. What had happened is she had fractured her wrist 4 months ago and had not done anything to support it while it was healing (more accurately not healing). She was at risk of the distal ulnar never healing and going into necrosis. She needed follow up, so we were able to get her a referral to a hospital here where she could get x-rays and surgery if necessary. This woman had went through our optical station and would have not been able to go to another station had I not been there. I know that even though I was not able to repair her wrist, by catching this before she left, meant that she may not lose more function of her right wrist.

Three patients had returned from the day before that were suffering from daily headaches: At least ½ of my patients in a day suffer from very regular headaches. If it is the first day of brigade, I will have between 1-4 return the next day to get another visit. These 3 women were all suffering from daily headaches that they reported had not went away ranging from 2–6 weeks.

One patient told me that she had her 1st headache free day in 2 weeks after her first visit. She was very excited and grateful for the care that she received.

The other gal said that her headache had come back, but was less intense. I gave her another adjustment and worked on a few hypertonic muscles. I also showed her some things to improve her posture and muscles to due trigger point too in her home.

The third patient was very special to me as I had treated her daughter, 4-year-old Daniella, the day before. Daniella was waking up during the night and crying from ‘bone pain’ she also had a difficult time walking and was mildly knock kneed. I adjusted her low back, her feet and assessed her muscles in her legs. She was very hypertonic in her lateral thighs and her anterior legs. Her feet also had a mild pronation, a curving in of her feet. I did some light muscle work on her and showed her mom which muscles to massage. I believed that the muscles were aching due to the tightness and that was the bone pain that was referred to. I gave them some lotion and had mom demonstrate that she understood what I wanted her to due. Next I treated mom and found out she had been having headaches for 3 weeks straight, but has been having serious headaches for at least a year. I treat the muscles and joints in her neck and had her come back for Friday.

On Friday mom told me that her daughter had not had leg pain that night, which was great to hear. What was so significant for me was when she was waiting in line she was playing with her daughter Daniella. She had not had a headache since the day before! It was such a wonderful reminder to me that not only do these chronic physical pains affect how one feels, but it affects how good of parents they are. It affects many aspects of their lives such as friends, spouses, church members and most importantly parenting. It was wonderful to see how this physical and neurological relief had changed her in just one day.

These five patients stick out in my mind as wonderful results for that day. The other 41 patients will also have relief, big and small. It is tough knowing that I will not see many of these patients again in this world and what we have to offer physically is short term. I take comfort that what the Lord offers is forever! The thing that brought me to Honduras is that all 46 of the patients I saw, also were able to go to the evangelism station. They were able to talk with a Christian that had come from Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, and even a team member from Shakopee, Minnesota. They were able to share in faith and some hopefully came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.