Several years ago, a patient in my Ottawa Chiropractic clinic, gave me some feedback that wasn’t easy to hear.

“It feels like you aren’t paying attention to my concerns when I come to see you”.

Ouch.

When I probed a little deeper to better understand what she meant, I realized what was happening. It’s not because I don’t care.  It’s just the opposite.

Remember the small yellow and red model that represents your spine? Each ball represents one of the spinal bones. In simple terms, when I am checking your spine, what I’m feeling for are the areas of your spine that are rigid (just like the red balls). You may tell me it hurts somewhere else, and I will feel those areas but if it is not rigid, I’m not going to do anything to that area. I only adjust you where your spine is rigid.

Ottawa Chiropractic Spinal Model

If I take my eye off the ball (no pun intended), and I only render care to where you are sore, odds are I’m creating superficial results. I think it’s a safe bet that most people have had enough of that. We want to get your spine corrected as much as we can in the shortest amount of time possible. The best way to do that for you is that I show up at the table and proceed in an objective way as possible.

On a visit-to-visit basis you’re going to have some minor variations in the symptoms that you came in with. I don’t need to know about those minor variations. In fact, for your sake, it’s better that I don’t.

Your plan of care has regular progress exams that are scheduled and specifically designed to go over what your symptoms are and how things have changed. On a visit-to-visit basis, for me to give you the best adjustment and for you to get you the best results…is for me to show up as objectively as possible.

Before I adjust you, you should know that I look on the screen and refresh my memory on your case notes and what your initial complaint was. I don’t go in blind.

You should know that there are some symptoms I definitely need to know before I adjust you though. If you have a headache, an injury, symptoms that radiate down into your arms or legs or any significant departure from the norm, I need to know before I touch you.

When in doubt, always report changes.

The ones I don’t really need to know about are the minor variations from day to day. It’s not because I don’t care, I’m not asking because I don’t want to be swayed. I want to remain objective to give you the best possible adjustment.

Here for you 100%