I suffered from severe migraine headaches as a child, as early as 8 or 9 years old. The pain and nausea would wake me and keep me up for hours in the middle of the night until I would vomit, and then be able to sleep. This would happen 2-3 times a month and I missed a lot of morning lessons as I’d need to sleep off the headache.
This was very worrisome for my mom who felt at a loss for what to do to help me. We tried figuring out what triggered the headaches (from rich foods, spicy foods, sweet foods, MSG, to dairy) and eliminating them from my diet. I still got the headaches. I tried a prescription medicine one time and remember telling my mom that I’d rather have the headache….. that the drug made me feel worse. So on I went tolerating those headaches and learning to live with them. UNTIL…Someone told my mom about chiropractic.
I was 15 years old and she brought me in for a chiropractic exam. As we listened and learned about the spine and nervous system, and saw how out of alignment I was just by looking at my posture, it made sense that this may help. And that this would be something very different from what we’d tried in the past. This would be getting us to the underlying cause of the migraines.
I started care and soon was getting fewer headaches! I ended up working in the office as an assistant, and I not only experienced improvement personally, but saw many people get help with health problems that they’d been tolerating too (like neck pain, back pain, leg pain, numbness, headaches, allergies, and asthma). I worked in that chiropractic office through high school and undergraduate college UNTIL….I went Chiropractic College myself! I had found what I wanted to do and was meant to do in life.
I regard the migraines I had as a kid as blessing in disguise. It brought me to this work that I so passionately love, and is so desperately needed in our society. I get to play a part in assisting the process of healing as my patients regain their health and vitality by utilizing Chiropractic. It is rewarding every single day to witness that and I’m thankful I get to be a part of it!