Heads Up: PSA – Grandson Update and Chiropractics

I am starting a separate series for PSAs and such called Heads Up. The goal is to provide information that may be useful to QTreepers from personal experiences.

For this Heads Up the saga of our grandson as well as more on chiropractics continues. BIMD continues in a week or two as we drill down on names and faces you may know or heard about back in those days.

Grandson

OK, gang, it’s good news so far, although not without some twists, turns and more paths to follow. However, we are beginning to see a picture emerge that could take our young man to good health and a normal life.

The 6 month program we followed with our chiro has led to his hips being in perfect alignment. His lumbar region has improved over 80% and is nearing acceptable range. His C1 atlas has improved 90% and is less than 1 mm from being in range. At this point he enters into once per month maintenance, can do any and all physical activity he desires, and we monitor the growth and maturation of his 9 year old body. All systems go.

His physical performance of sports, running, riding a bike, etc. have been off the charts. Jumps high, runs everywhere, rides a bike, loves watching and trying sports. A normal, physical, coordinated child from total inability in 6 months. Amazing is an overused word, but not for him.

His absence seizures continue to evolve. He had a week off from school for fall break. He had less than 20 the entire week. The week before in school he had 20-30 per day per teachers’ logs. They are not dangerous, just 5-15 second pausing of focus. However, they can scare teachers and other students who envision much more serious health issues when they cluster. The seizures have increased in number while becoming less serious in severity since their onset with COVID masking in the spring of 2020. They are driven by stressful situations.

I have previously posted the disastrous treatments and repercussions of the prescribed meds of the previous pediatric neurologist as well as our weaning him off of them in June/July of this year. The hallucinations, mania and nightmares stopped. His appetite improved since then although we still have much more to do to improve in this area.

He was seen by his new pediatric neurologist this week who who will spend time studying his situation. Much, much more thorough and caring specialist with a good plan. She concurs with his pediatrician that there is an element of ADHD that the previous neurologist never even considered and will study with the pediatrician the options for a non-stimulant med that he can take to address it that works well as she restarts Ethosuximide now that his CNS is firing correctly from the chiro treatments. This med is the first line of attack for absence seizures and has been proven to be very successful for many years. It was not successful for our grandson previous to the chiro treatments. The chiro, pediatrician and neurologist all believe it will this time along with the ADHD med. May require some dosing adjustments, but much more likely to succeed because we have eliminated a physical issue that hindered it. His blood panel came back with his liver function fully restored in normal ranges. So, weaning off the previous meds process worked as hoped and he purged all of it from his system. His ferritin is on the lower end, so they are doing a 90 day iron liquid supplement to help rebuild it. The will monitor with blood panels monthly initially.

An MRI was done on his brain. Most of the time that takes 2-3 months to get one scheduled after insurance approval. This neurologist got it done in two days. He was placed at the top of the waiting list, a cancellation happened, and the test was done the next day. It came back normal. The other neurologist never considered having one done in over a year. So from an initial exam/eval 5 days ago, we have the blood panel back and analyzed, an MRI done and read, and safe, proven meds being reviewed for their ability to work with each other to help his issues.

That’s a God thing. Further confirmation we are on the right path.

The neurologist asked if they were willing to do a genetics test to rule that out and they agreed. She noted that his core muscles are all good, coordination is good, and that she also believes he has sensory eating issues that have been diagnosed previously. Overall a path is being developed that is medically sound and should provide the answers and treatments we seek.

Finally, as noted above there have been sensory issues since birth, primarily related to eating. This has caused him to be a very picky eater and very underweight compared to peer. We have enlisted the aid of a local therapist to assist with this and it is the #1 focus of his pediatrician, chiro and us. For his body to heal, grow and mature properly he must be nourished well.

Thank you for your prayers, positive thoughts and advice during this process. It has meant a great deal to us. Will keep you informed.

Next!

Now, on to wifey and my personal use of chiropractic programs, which we began a couple of weeks ago.

Welp, guess who took after his Papaw? Yup, same spinal issues in the same places, just more advanced due to my age. Mine include the start of many bone spurs in the lumbar and cervical spine areas. My future was about to become much more painful with surgery likely for a multiple number of developing issues. The chiro stated that it was primarily due to the effects of being a desk jockey for all those years. She believes my moderate level of physical activity is probably what kept me going as long as I have.

Major wake up call for Papaw.

Fortunately, we appear to have caught it in time. She asked if I just wanted to fix a few things for relief or develop a program for life that could potentially eliminate future joint replacements that included vitamin and supplement support, exercises, etc. In particular I have a left hip issue developing that would lead to its replacement as well as knee replacements. Knowing my body, past issues, sports injuries, some understanding of anatomy and reading scans; I immediately knew she was spot on. I signed up for the 6 month retooling program and plan to do a maintenance program the rest of my life.

Many of my joints had begun to increasingly ache and it was not nearly as easy to climb out of bed in the AM. Golfing was becoming a much less desirable activity – something I have dearly loved for many years. I contributed it to just getting older. Age and physical ailments just seem to creep up on all of us. Being from the no pain, no gain mindset; I just blocked it out the best I could until it got unbearable, then took some Aleve if needed. I would lose weight, exercise and fitness walk until things seemed better. However, that was just adapting to the conditions on the ground and not addressing the root causes.

I have now been adjusted a half dozen times along with other electronic stimulation, stretch table, and cold/heat treatments and have already noticed a big improvement in mobility and pain. Sold. Let’s see how far we can take this. Anything to avoid the knife and it sure is nice to feel better in my skin again.

Wifey

Wifey has some similar as well as different spinal issues. As I have stated on here previously she was diagnosed with moderate Meniere’s Disease (inner ear related) decades ago and has over 20 tested allergies. The chiro took all of that into consideration during the eval and provided her plan. Wifey agreed to give it a shot despite having adapted to her existence the best she could through many years of dealing with traditional medical methods and treatments. They have started with the activator method to ease her concerns since she has bone density issues and hope to move to normal manipulation adjustments in some of her trouble spots down the road.

After five treatments, of which one part is related to her Atlas (C1), half of her Meniere’s related issues have left. In the past when she entered large stores and into other sunny environments, the lighting would throw off her balance. That is gone. That alone would have been worth it. The chiro believes over time she will also experience relief from the motion aspect of traveling. We will be soon testing that as we leave for a 2 week fall vacation. Wifey says she has not noticed much improvement there yet.

She is the is glass half empty, I am the glass is half full.

I have observed pretty big positive changes with motion. I am staying quiet about it until she says something because if I do she will immediately deny it. Husbands/wives, half full/half empty. My observations are based on a major reduction in anxiety resulting from the motion around us as we ride. In two hours of combined driving yesterday and today, there were only a couple reactions to motion from vehicles to her side of the vehicle. Previously there would be more than that in 10 minutes. I even jerked the steering wheel and gunned the gas on turns a few times to see her reaction. Nothing.

I developed a system for smooth, isolating driving and behavior observations to reduce the effects of the Meniere’s when we traveled. Will see how it goes, but it is clear this has begun to improve her quality of life in unexpected and highly desired ways.

Now, let’s get to the probable cause as it may benefit many readers. It appeared from her X-rays that the tilt of the Atlas had compressed her left ear’s Eustachian tube. Fluid would tend to build up throwing her balance off. It makes sense medically. When we have spinal curvatures, we shift/tilt our heads to accommodate to maintain our balance while standing. This then becomes part of our new normal posture. Guess who has taken prescribed fluid meds for decades for the fluid in her inner ears? Yup. That was traditional PCP and ENT medicine’s response and not to x-ray and identify C1 issues with the tube. Just deal with the symptom with a drug. Their need to sell meds, build a repeating patient base, etc. led to their easy answer. Next! So what effect did decades of fluid pills she may have never needed have on her overall health? Yeah, there’s that. I will not belabor this point because most all of you know where it leads and it has been very frustrating. Prior to chiro treatments, she had chosen to wean off the fluid pills as they negatively affected her blood labs and overall feeling of well being. She was trying CBD. However, she had not been able to fully do so. Until now.

Additional benefit – hypertension has reduced. She no longer takes Amlodipine after having lost weight and weaned off of it on her own. Now she is weaning off fluid pills. All while bringing her BP and heart rate back down to normal ranges. She maintains a Clonidine Rx for BP spikes only, which she has not had a need for since chiro treatments started.

It’s all interconnected.

Decades of going to PCPs and ENTs for the same issue. Catscans and a MRI completed. Endoscopies for it and allergy issues. They spotted nothing out of the normal because they were not looking for the right thing. Yet her spinal curvature and head position have remained in a similar configuration for decades. There is a noticeable mid back hump and excessive neck curvature that have been present since we met nearly 40 years ago. As medically trained professionals they had to know because she and I knew it was off. That led It to becoming more pronounced after her fall last year, yet, they noticed nothing and said nothing. “They” in this case would be her PCP, ENT, neurologist, and NP’s.

Needless to say they should have read this in previous scans and images many years ago. At least looked at her cervical spine region since they had concerns she had MS when she was younger. A highly competent chiro with an X-ray machine in her office clearly showed it on the images such that we both could see it. She knew to look because my wife listed Meniere’s as an existing medical condition. The chiro began treating it appropriately and there was a strong measure of relief almost immediately.

In addition, the chiro is doing lumbar adjustments to help relieve the strain on her hips caused from the lumbar scoliosis, relief for her recently fractured knee’s tibial socket, and other spinal adjustments for a wonky rotator in one shoulder. The scoliosis will never be fully corrected at her age, however a 50+% improvement is expected and there are no related issues with compression of vertebra, which is a very good thing.

Spine -> CNS -> Brain.

Next up in a week, our daughter and SIL go in for their evals. We already know she’s had TMJ issues for years and he has severe scoliosis of the lumbar that creates pain in his knees that was diagnosed and left untreated by his parents from his youth. They are now in their mid-30s. It is the time for fixes to the best extent possible and to develop programs for healthy living.

Vitamins and Supplements

Over time and with COVD I have developed a war chest of those items. It has become almost too much to keep up with and track. Enter the Edison System from Vitalleohealth.

Upon recommendation from the chiro, we purchased a one month supply and are trying these products. Others such as Wolf, Gail, Aubergine, etc. would likely know more than me as their input in this area over the past couple of years has been invaluable. There are men’s and women’s formulations of a multi vitamin and a Nerve, Bone and Soft Tissue Support supplement. I will link their site below and not go into the details, however, it appears their contents mirror what all three of our QTreepers above and others have suggested on here. They are not cheap, but if they are effective, what price is too much to pay for better health? A cost comparison of all of the individual vitamins and supplements needed versus the Edison products may reveal the financial difference to be insignificant.

In addition, due to wifey’s osteo issues, she has started using their Bone Builder Forte support formulation. Wifey is allergic to many prescribed bone density products such as Fosamax, so she had been taking Caltrate and such for decades with minimal benefit. Enter this formula which uses Microcrystalline Hydroxyapatite Concentrate. This is a bovine sourced whole bone concentrate formula which seems to work the best to actually increase bone density. She has already noted a positive difference in how she feels. See the link below relating to an abstract from a controlled study on it reducing back pain.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6373153/

“Of 19 patients with initial back pain only 2 still reported any pain at all after 12-months’ MCHC treatment.”

The company uses powder form in veggie caps for its products. That is especially important for older folks as we lose acidity in our stomachs with age. Studies show that the harder tablets are frequently never fully absorbed in most older folks. Our chiro said we would probably need to take three hard tablet multis to get the benefit of one equivalent, fully absorbed capsule.

There may be other suppliers who do similar things well. This is just the company our chiro recommends for her patients and from her experiences with personal usage. I will keep everybody informed of our progress.

Conclusion

On multiple occasions over the years we have experienced times when traditional medicine has helped us greatly in addition to times of having let us down badly. Our biggest mistake has been accepting the initial diagnosis, response or answer as the guiding truth. When we accepted without personally doing deeper investigation, questioning and even challenging recommendations, we were disappointed frequently. When we dug in and asked the tough questions to go with soliciting other opinions, we were generally rewarded with better results. In most of the cases it led to greater understanding. Which is the point of these posts, to help others based on our personal experiences.

I asked our chiro if she was frustrated by the fact that she could help so many people who have no idea they need chiropractics. Her answer was strongly affirmative. She blames her industry for doing a terrible job of educating the public. She knows the profession could help many more people because only about 5% of the public has ever been to a chiro. She is doing her part to change it as a teaching professional within the profession with numerous awards. For that, our family is truly grateful. When we walk by their office break room and see the appreciation letter from our grandson with a photo attached to the refrigerator we know that it matters greatly to her and her staff that they do things well for the patients as people. Successfully helping patients and caring about them as people leads to many more referrals and more bottom line. When you show you care it comes through and people are reassured.

Before our grandson began treatments this past spring, we had never met this person and knew very little other than she had a great reputation with many friends. Since that point we have learned about her teaching nationally and awards from others. More importantly, she has told us about her personal health issues (liver, injuries, sleep issues), how even babies have been brought in for adjustments due to birth trauma as all ages use her practice’s services, how she is focused and on being on her game for each patient at all times, that she uses her gut instincts in treating individual patients from what she observes, that she treats an average of 90 patients per day/4 days per week, that many whine or grumble about her taking a day off. We learned how her staff does not turn over, how her entire staff is taken to FL for a 4 day conference every year for CE and a reward, how her parents have been married for 50+ years, how different she is from her sister, that she has a young adult niece who has dealt with similar silent seizure issues as our grandson, and so on. She is willing to share private parts of herself to help others and build relationships.

Seek that from your medical providers if available to you. Competency and relationships built on trust as real people.