Clay, paints, and a photoshoot

As a doctor of the nervous system I'll be interfacing with the system at the spine. We all know it is made up of a bunch of different bones and that these bones cannot be seen through the skin. As a student I have to get to know the bones by touch alone. So I practice with plastic models and real bone, real bone is way better to learn with cause the plastic feels all the same. I think it would be easier to develop X-ray glasses to look at the spine I work with rather than memorize which part of the plastic spine I have in my hands without looking. In my spinal anatomy class I was given a ball of clay and told to model it into a sacrum (the portion the tail bone is attached to). I'm not an artist but I think I did an alright job which is why you get to see a side by side shot of the plastic model next to my clay one. I've worked with clay before and that stuff wasn't really good. It was really sticky and more like working with caulking instead of clay. I can't really complain though because I'm going to Life Chiropractic College West and not Life Artists of the Spine College West. Regardless of the pseudo-clay I had to work with my wife was totally jealous that I was creating art. Funny thing is she was painting something way cooler than the clay model sacrum (and it will end up looking way better than my creation anyway). I love my wife. She's was also jealous of the coloring I've been doing for homework. Of course now after I write this it would seem I'm back in kindergarten all over again without the tasty paste. Fortunately the little nap stations have been upgraded to really nice furniture.

Part of being in Chiropractic school means I'll be practicing techniques on my fellow classmates before I help the general public. This means I have to get paired up with an intern who will be my doctor until he graduates nine months from now. I have to have a file open in case anything happens. I met with my intern for the first time last Wednesday after school. It was a long day (7am-7pm) for me. Part of the exam are X-rays. A full body one. I was wondering as I was dressing into the gown how many pictures they would take to get a full body exam and if I had any children after if they would be normal looking or have radical mutations. I don't remember how many shots they took but it was a lot. Thankfully when they took a shot of my pelvis they gave me a guard to protect myself with. It took every ounce of self restraint not to hold on tight to the led triangle and press it up against my groin to ward off any stray x-ray. I couldn't hold onto it cause my arms would get in the way of the picture. I'm looking forward to seeing those x-rays. After the films get developed and analyzed I'll get to go in for my first adjustment while being here at school and I am super excited for it. I'm still in one piece after all the pictures all my hair is where it should be and no weird growths. I'll have to wait a while to see if the triangle did its job right though. If it didn't I'm hoping for a three armed child with laser vision and the ability to regenerate.

Immunizations and such

Today we had quite the discussion, more like verbal warfare, over vaccinations particularly the H1N1 vaccine. I understand lots of people have differing opinions over vaccines. I for one am not getting the newest flu vaccine. I never have gotten the vaccine and I'll probably start getting them out of concern for my patients' well being when I go into practice. I can't be spreading the disease around to those how are susceptible now can I? While this choice of mine may put me in a minority among a minority (as far as I can tell many alternative health care providers oppose vaccines) it is a choice I feel to be a responsible one. Vaccines have done a lot of good. We have rid ourselves of detrimental and incapacitating diseases. In fact the only cure we currently have for rabies is the rabies vaccine itself. I think a lot of the controversy arise from a lack of in depth knowledge and out of context quotes.

I understand that there is a risk with vaccinations. I understand that disease, or in a very very very small chance, death may occur from getting a vaccination. I also know, if I recall correctly, that most deaths from vaccination actually are due to an allergic reaction to the media of the vaccine. I also understand that there are a whole slew of other conditions that may come from getting a vaccine. A very important thing I also know is that without vaccines we would still have many more diseases we would be competing with to survive. So to those who choose not to get vaccinated, including me for the newest flu shot, we owe those who do get the vaccines a thanks. Because those who take the vaccines help stop the spread of disease amongst the herd. So thanks for the herd immunity guys, I've got your back with some of the others.

Cost effective care

In a class today we spoke about two heath care ideas, a practice that is symptom relieving or one that is "curative", and the cost effectiveness of both. Going to get cured for a disease in the long run is more cost effective and it is something we all really know. In fact being cured is what we all really want anyways when we become ill. No one in their right mind goes to the doctor and says, "Hey I'm feeling awful Doc. I want you to make me feel better but I don't want you to cure me of the problem. I like my disease," yet we still have situations where we do just that. For high blood pressure we can get a nice little pill that will bring it down for us. The symptom is gone but only so long as the pill continues to get used. To top it off the body will eventually get used to the dose that is being prescribed for the high blood pressure and a new larger dosage will be required. The pill is not making the user better at all. In fact after a time if the individual ever goes off the pill their blood pressure doesn't stay decreased or even go back to what it was before the pill but is higher than what it was before they started taking medications. Now don't get me wrong here I'm not in any way saying medication is evil or unnecessary I'm only trying to point out that if we could "cure" the problem then we could be free of pills and high blood pressure which is going to save money in the long run. So lets start saving money and going for the "cure" whether it be through chiropractic or allopathic care it is something we all deserve. In the long run maintaining our health is much more cost effective than getting sick.

Chiropractic and Me

So here I go again starting yet another blog. Here is my Chiropractic Story. I'm a student in Hayward, CA at Life Chiropractic College West. I've taken my first steps down the pathway that will lead me to being a chiropractor. I was originally planning on being a dentist but found that was not the life for me. I started out being a skeptic that chiropractic could help at all but once I saw how it could help my wife after a serious injury I found myself changing my mind set about chiropractic. While it is a new world for me and I am excited to explore it the one thing I know right now about the profession I have chosen is that we are not back doctors rather we are doctors of the nervous system and we care about functionality. I guess bottom line is we care and I look forward to sharing my experiences of chiropractic school here.