Today's Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul

[Guest guest]

A Changed Demeanor

By Barry Gardner, D.C.

Being an out-patient clinic intern in my last year at College of

Chiropractic, I must say I was full to the brim with chiropractic philosophy,

but short on experience. I was about three quarters of the way to my completion

of clinic. My new patient, I'll call him , was a rather small

thirteen-year-old Hispanic boy with dark eyes, black hair and a sunken demeanor.

His gaze was always down and his spirit broken. In her broken English, his

mother related to me 's history as I perused the medical documents she

handed me. It seems that was dropped while a baby and had suffered seizures

since he was six years old. He has been given every pharmaceutical drug the

medical doctors had at their disposal, but none of them had helped much. His

seizures were occurring about three times per week with no warning.

withdrew deeper and deeper into himself to the point that he no longer

associated with his siblings, parents, or the world around him. His pattern was

to stay by himself at school, never making any friends. As soon as he got home

he went straight to his room and stayed there until morning and it was time to

go to school again. His meals were eaten alone in his room. This was one sad

little boy.

When directly questioned, would give one word answers never looking up. I

told him that I was gong to do an examination. His non-verbal response was

expressive of his feelings, " so what, do whatever, it won't matter anyway. "

My examination of 's spine revealed subluxations of the neck. After

processing the paperwork through the clinic channels, I was cleared to adjust

. His look of surprise after his very first chiropractic adjustment reminded

me of a child seeing his first new bicycle under the tree, eyes wide open and

his mouth slowly curling up at the edges into a huge smile, half relief that it

didn't hurt and astonishment that he lived through it.

I explained to and his mother that he needed to come in three times a week

for a few weeks and then we would do another examination. They agreed and

returned uneventfully for three more adjustments. By this time was used to

the sound of the adjustment and seemed to look forward to them. On the afternoon

of the second week's first appointment, 's mother was so excited she could

hardly contain herself. just sat there with a big grin on his face as his

mother tearfully and joyfully told me about the events of the night before.

was in his room as usual while she was preparing dinner. The other children and

her husband were playing games and watching television. As was her routine, she

prepared a plate and took it to 's room. Knocking on the door to let her son

know that dinner was there, the door swung open and told her he wanted to

eat at the table tonight with the others. This, she said, had not happened in

years. took his place at the table which had remained empty for years with

the astonished, but elated, family. During dinner 's two sisters asked

permission to go to the mall after dinner. To everyone's surprise asked if

he could go as well. It had been years since he had interacted with his family.

Now he wanted to eat with them, play with them and even venture out into the

world alone. His mother was in tears, was in tears and I was in tears. The

only thing that had changed in his treatment regime was chiropractic

adjustments. Now, this once sullen, lonely boy has blossomed into the active,

happy, joyful teenager that God intended him to be.