Is Fear Limiting Your Practice?
Recently, one of my patients who has been with me for many years asked me, “Dr. Barrows, do you think you can help my son, Leonard?” Naturally, I asked what was going on with him. She said he had been suffering with nausea and vomiting, and couldn’t hold anything down. Now we are not talking about a child. Leonard is in his mid 50’s. So I asked how long this had been going on. She said, it had been going on for over 6 months! Leonard had lost a lot of weight, couldn’t work, and had to carry a bucket around just in case. She said it all started after he had a stay in the hospital for pneumonia. He recovered from the pneumonia, but then the nausea and vomiting started.
I told her what I would tell anyone else in such a condition. Bring him in and let me evaluate him. If I can help, I will tell you, if not I will tell you that too. So she went to work on getting him to come in and see me. Several appointments were made and canceled, often at the last minute. Leonard would be so bad with the nausea and vomiting that he couldn’t make it in. Ultimately, he did make it in, and I sat down with him to talk about his
All during the consultation, Leonard kept a towel close to his mouth, and kept his bucket handy. He told me of all the medical tests that he had had. The diagnosis was gastric paresis. The doctors had given him medicine to take, but he couldn’t hold any of it down. At the end of the consultation, I told him of how the digestive tract is all controlled by nerves, and that if I find anything in the examination that is interferring with the function of those nerves, then there is a possibility that I can help.
Examination and x-rays did reveal subluxation in the thoracic and upper cervical regions, but on appearance nothing that as a chiropractor I haven’t seen thousands of times. So, why did Leonard have this problem of nausea and vomiting? I will never know for sure.
What I do know is that we laid out a plan of care to correct the subluxations that were found and went to work on them. After the first two weeks of care, my staff and I noticed that Leonard wasn’t carrying his towel or his bucket. The next week, his hair was combed and his eyes were bright. He was animated and excited. The following week, he was telling me about his skills as a carpenter, and how he was ready to get back to work.
Can you explain it. I know I can’t. This man literally got his life back after almost 8 months of suffering. The healing power of the body was restored to the tissues and cells that needed that power, and Leonard healed.
My question for you is this. Would you have taken Leonard’s case? Would you have had the belief in yourself, your technique, your office protocols and procedures? Would you have been afraid? If so, let me help you out. I didn’t treat Leonard’s stomach, his nausea or his vomiting. I simply found his subluxations and adjusted them. The power that made his body is the power that healed his body. Let’s give credit where credit is due, but if I had acted in fear and not taken the case, Leonard would still be suffering, and I would have betrayed my calling.
My message to you is simple. Be bold. Be what you were called to be. Let the results take care of themselves.
