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| Category: Chiropractor(s) |
Date published: February 10, 2005 |
"Why do you need an x-ray?" I was asked this question time and again during the years I worked for Chiropractors. We would explain that the doctor required them in order to see the condition of the spine and would need time to examine them before beginning treatment. Not all Chiropractors required them, but thankfully...mine did.
My husband suffered from back problems for years, but never knew the source. The x-rays taken by the first Chiropractor I worked for revealed two separate bones in his spine had been broken at one time, one injury was older than the other. My husband knew immediately when the first one happened. He was ten years old and playing telephone man in a tree with his dad's belt strapped to his waist. The belt broke and he went crashing to the ground. The injury to his spine was never detected before this time, but for years he suffered from back problems.
The second Chiropractor I worked for, female, was especially astute at taking and reading x-rays.
X-rays were taken again when my husband complained to the Chiropractor of a pain on his right side. They revealed gallstones. She recommended he drink a concoction made from fresh squeezed lemons and pure olive oil. He was to sip it through a straw and immediately lie down on his right side for twenty minutes and do this each night for four nights. By the fifth night, he had passed several gallstones.
I wish the story ended there, but a year later the gallstones returned and he chose to have them removed. The strange thing is, my husband's medical doctor didn't readily diagnose his condition as gallstones. It was only after my husband told him that he had gallstones a year earlier that he took the tests that confirmed it to be the source of his problems.
"The difference between life and death" is what I called an earlier set of x-rays taken by my Chiropractor on my husband. They revealed an abdominal aneurysm. For anyone who doesn't know this, if one bursts, it's often fatal. He was referred out to a medical doctor time and the aneurysm was monitored for a few years. When it reached the size considered life threatening, it was removed.
What was normally a four-day hospital stay turned into two weeks. My husband developed several intestinal hernias, while in the hospital, and a follow-up surgery was needed to insert a mesh into his stomach. While closing him up, the doctor discovered a serious staff infection my husband picked up during his first surgery. He knew this for certain because the infection was found in the very same area my husband pointed out to the surgeon following the first surgery. Eight weeks of intravenous anti-biotic treatments were received.
Since that time, three more hernias have popped out through the mesh, but not once has a single x-ray or an ultra-sound been performed by my husband's medical doctors to check if all is OK. I worry about the abdominal aneurysm, not the first one because that one was removed, but I've heard they can re-occur. The surgeon said my husband has hardening of the arteries. I would think his condition would warrant closer attention.
The point to this story is. Not before, nor since, has my husband's medical doctors ever taken x-rays. If not for this Chiropractor, he would most likely be dead today. And yet, during the years I worked for these doctors, I learned the prejudice that went along with their profession. "They aren't real doctors," some would say. "Quacks," was the word that came from many others. I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears the disdain for Chiropractors that came from the medical community. I know that some may be disserving of this lack of respect...I don't know. What I do know is, my Chiropractor saved my husband's life.
Why x-rays, you may ask? They may save your life. Sadly, few insurance companies will cover much of the cost of them if not taken by a medical doctor. Even the treatments that are performed by Chiropractors are limited in number by insurance companies.
Non-the-less...GET THE X-RAY!
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