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Introducing Cedar Rapids Chiropractor Dr. Douglas Dennis
My strong advocacy of chiropractic care is deeply rooted in personal experience.
I first received chiropractic care from Dr. Jack M. Dickson in El Dorado, Kansas, in the fall of 1971. I had just turned 16 and was starting my junior year of high school. I hadn't lifted wrong, turned or twisted. In fact, my problem began many years earlier.
One Cedar Rapids Chiropractors Story
I was born in my Grandmother's home and in her bed. I had no visible defects but as I grew, it became noticeable that my head constantly leaned to the left. In time, my head tilt became more and more pronounced. The left sternoclidomastoid muscle, the muscle that goes from the sternum and clavicle (collarbone) to the mastoid (bone on the head behind the ear), did not develop. My condition was called congenital torticollis. Congenital means from birth and torticollis means a twisted neck. It is normally from a birth trauma but I had my share of boyhood accidents that certainly could have caused or worsened the condition. I was accidentally thrown from a car at age one and I fell from a car going down the highway when I was five. By the time I was fifteen, my head was permanently pulled down and to the left. To hold my head straight, I had to lift my left shoulder. As a result, my spine developed with an 'S' curve which enabled me to adapt to my condition and balance my center of gravity.
As I aged, the torticollis caused many problems with coordination and movement. Fortunately, it didn't affect my balance. I even walked on stilts from age ten and progressed up to stilts 8 feet high. Like any kid, I would often jump off the stilts to get down and would occasionally have paralyzing low back pain. I’d lie on the ground until the pain subsided and then do it all over again. (I never claimed to be a genius!)
In school, I was tormented by many a 'bully' because I was the kid who couldn’t hold his head up straight. I was left with 'invisible' scars that have taken many years to heal.
At fifteen, I visited my family doctor, Dr. Benjamin White, and asked him for help. He made all the arrangements for me to have surgery to correct my congenital torticollis. On July 5, 1971, I had surgery on the left sternoclidomastoid muscle to allow me to hold my head up straight. The surgery was paid for by the Kansas Society for Crippled Children and performed by Dr. Lance at St Joseph ’s Medical Center in Wichita . For this, I am eternally grateful. I remember my mother letting me drive home from the hospital. I had gotten my learner's permit two years earlier and had driven nearly every day. What I recall most was the strangeness of looking down the highway and everything appearing at a different angle. It was difficult to keep from driving off the road!
And A Chiropractor Was Born
In the next few months, I began having more and more neck and back pain. My spine wasn't adapting well to the change in my center of gravity so I went to see Dr. Dickson and he offered me tremendous relief from pain. In fact, I was so impressed with the relief I experienced, I decided right then and there I wanted to become a chiropractor.
Since that time, I have been under regular chiropractic care. Every chiropractor I've seen in the past thirty-plus years has adjusted me. Almost all of them have given me significant relief from my pain. Some even scheduled me for weeks into the future with three to five visits a week. Unfortunately, I didn't get any more relief from those long, drawn-out treatments than I did from a single visit to a gifted chiropractor. Additionally, very few of the chiropractors I visited ever explained to me what I was doing to cause my pain to return or how I could prevent recurring pain simply by modifying daily activities.
Today, my professional goal is to educate patients on how to recognize what they may be doing on a daily basis to cause the kinds of pain that generally bring them into my office. By teaching them to modify their activities of daily living and perform some basic stretching and strengthening exercises, I am able to see them less often than most of of my peers. The success of my Cedar Rapids chiropractic practice is a direct consequence of my many referrals by satisfied patients.
Call today to schedule your appointment.