Why I Became a Chiropractor
Dr. Sarah Leahy Granite
When I was ten years old, I jumped out of my bedroom window on the second floor of our newly-built split level home in Ashburnham, Massachusetts. I had looked out one day and wondered if I would be able to jump to safety should there ever be a fire. I slid out gingerly, clutching the window sill with my tiny fingers, and let go, crashing to the ground. Though I didn’t look hurt on the outside, my life would be changed, and my future molded by the leap I made that day.
As I hobbled inside, one hand on my back, my mother asked what I had done. Though I felt silly, I told her about the window and the imaginary fire. She checked me over, saw no visible injuries, and plugged in a heating pad to soothe my low back pain.
Years went by and I became a cheerleader. Football season was my favorite, since during basketball we had to cheer from our seats on a bench with no back support, and I was always in pain. I envied the other girls who could sit there for hours, while my back ached so horribly. Though it seems crazy to me now, I never complained, nor had my back examined until I had been in pain for 14 years.
When I was 24 years old I visited my MD for a routine exam and mentioned my history of back pain, so she sent me for x-rays and a follow up with a physical therapist. I began PT treatments, and was informed that the x-rays had confirmed spondylolysis, a fracture likely caused from the fall. Though the fracture had occurred long ago, everything in the body is connected, and nearby joints and muscles were affected, causing pain. After PT treatments didn’t help, I was recommended to a chiropractor.
It would be nice if I could say that my first experience with a chiropractor was so amazing that I decided right then and there to become one, but that’s not what happened. My first visit to a chiropractor involved a doctor with zero bedside manner who used a technique very improperly – I technique that I now (properly) use in my office. I left feeling no more hope for a healed back than when I walked in. Chiropractic had discouraged me, but only because I had let my one bad experience define an entire profession.
I will be the first to say that not all chiropractors are created equal, just as not all medical doctors or lawyers or plumbers are equal with regard to their talents, personalities, and workmanship. The difference between chiropractic and many other fields is that if you saw a medical doctor, for example, and you didn’t like the treatment or outcome, you wouldn’t write medicine off all together. You would find another MD. I’ve met several people who have written off chiropractic because of one experience, or, worse, a story they heard from a friend. Luckily I was not one of those people.
A few years later, after the pain continued, I decided to do a little more research into chiropractic and what the benefits could have been. I learned that chiropractors (DC’s) received the same education as MD’s with regard to pathology and diagnosis, only differing once the treatment portion of the curriculum was reached. I learned that in many states, including Massachusetts, DC’s can be primary care physicians, and that you don’t need a referral for their care to be covered by insurance. I learned that chiropractors provide very safe, conservative care to anyone from newborns to the elderly, and for many conditions outside of low back pain. But, most importantly, I learned that I should give chiropractic another try. I found a new chiropractor who not only listened to me, but educated me about my care. My back pain was gone, without drugs or surgery, and I started chiropractic school that fall.
Today I updated my status on Facebook, saying “I really don’t understand how anyone doesn’t go to a chiropractor. I’m very lucky to live with one.” Last September I married a chiropractor, that’s how much I love what I do. Since opening our office a little over a year ago, our practice has become full of people who are not only our patients, but our friends. We know about their families, their jobs, what they did with the last weekend of their summer. We have helped them to heal, often from conditions that other practitioners had told them they would have to live with. I feel privileged to be part of a profession that helps so many people, and am proud to be a chiropractor.
