Are there no chiropractors that exist that embrace a balance between modern and holistic medicine????
My husband and I are just not new age enough for this practice. If you are going to come here, then know that they will *only* treat you through the lens of holistic, chiropractic care. They will not suggest modern medicine alternatives if they are not being successful with their treatments, and if asked about modern medicine alternatives (e.g. a MRI to rediagnose what might be causing horrible pain that hasn't been resolved in a month)... they will try to talk you out of it. And then if you ignore them and go and do what you want anyway, when you come back they'll tell you you were right to do that. But they don't get why this could possibly be confusing to the patient, or reduce their credibility.
We tried talking out several examples of them doing things like these over the course of the last year at the time that they happened, and we were basically brushed off. When we finally decided to leave them for good, we sent them an email explaining why. We just got a generic letter in the mail from them stating that "if only we had brought these up at the time that they had happened." What? Totally insincere and, you know, totally ignoring that we'd pointed out in our email that we did try to talk to them - at least until the last incident that just pushed us over the edge.
Pros: Nice people. Possibly the only chiropractors in the area who work with pregnant women.
Cons: They will ignore all possibilities that modern medicine also has its place, to the point that they will not even consider learning about those alternatives to their treatments. Basically they are the converse of every modern doctor who hates holistic medicine.
Here are excerpts from the email we sent:
Example 1: I started doing massages because you informed me that you weren't getting the right results in adjusting me and the roller table and other exercises weren't effective. There have been several times over the course of the year in which John wanted to adjust me *prior* to my massage, and when I asked him about this, he would just shrug and say he could adjust me anyway. And of course the result was that it *was* difficult for him, and on top of it it reduced your credibility and absolutely made it look like you'd just convinced me to do massages to bring in extra business for yourselves and Mark.
Example 2: You stopped doing regular check ups on our spines, which was supposedly part of the regular process in seeing how things were progressing.
Example 3: When I started coming in for the over a month in which I was commenting how much pain my neck and shoulder and down my arm was, it became readily apparent that the *only* form of treatment you thought I should consider was more chiropractic. I reminded John about my prior injuries from rafting, and explained about all the recent travel. He diagnosed the bulging discs to be on the left side of the neck, told me that it was all about doing lots of additional chiropractic treatment, and that it did not make sense to get a MRI yet when I asked him point blank about that. I asked about alternative pain treatments in the interim and he basically told me he didn't believe in them so had no idea.
These three things bother us for a several reasons. First, while we can understand that you as chiropractors are more naturally attuned to wanting to do everything holistically for your own personal preferences, we cannot understand why you wouldn't realize there's a balance to be made for most of the rest of the population and at least keep up to date on what the alternatives to your own solutions would be. How else could you educate me on why pain treatments might not be great for me or why a MRI "didn't make sense?" I decided to go get a MRI because I did not trust your diagnosis and recommended next steps.
Second, when I came back reporting that I had gotten a MRI, John claimed that not only was I a good candidate for the MRI, but that I was also a good candidate for the epidural steroid injection that I received. As this is a complete 180 from what he originally said, it was maddening to think that if I had simply trusted his recommendations, I might've gone on in so much pain for so much longer.
Third, I asked him about his diagnosis of the bulging discs being on the left side when in actuality they are on the right side. He just laughed and basically asked why would I expect him to figure out the exact side? read more
