What Has Responded To Upper Cervical Care?

For more specific stories from patients around the world click here.

(Editor's note: Remember the objective of upper cervical care is to correct head neck misalignment that is interfering with proper brain to body communication. When this is corrected the body functions at a higher level and can often correct other problems more efficiently on its own. Please do not confuse upper cervical care as a treatment for any condition, disease or symptom.)

A Letter From A Skeptical Patient Of Upper Cervical Care

Editor's note: Today's post is about a patient's experience while under Upper Cervical Care. The method used was NUCCA.

A letter from a patient

by Dr. Deb Sesker

Note: This letter comes from a patient named Robyn, who has received NUCCA care for the last five years. She sent this to us via email in January of 2011.

Deb Sesker and NUCCA has completely changed my life. I have had chronic back pain since I was 9 years old after I was kicked behind my right ear by my horse. Then, at 15, I fell on the ice and broke my tailbone. Between the ages of 16 and 21, I was in five major car accidents where all vehicles were totalled. At 36, I was rear-ended by a teenage driver talking on her cell phone, and suffered whiplash.

I have spent thousands of dollars at conventional chiropractors, hours at acupuncturists and physical therapists, and even considered back surgery.

The surgeon refused to operate on me because he said I had a herniated disc and degenerative arthritis in my lower back. He said, “If I operate on you, you will be in a wheelchair within 5 years. You just need to learn how to live with the pain (and, by the way, here are some pain pills).” I walked away from the pain pills but was very depressed that I was still unable to find a cure.

My life was an everyday struggle because of the pain in my lower back. I literally cried every single day because I still had to work and make a living, and sitting at a computer all day was excruciating. I taught aerobics and rode on RAGBRAI and lived my life but suffered through it the whole time. I was determined I wasn’t going to let this pain ruin me, but I still suffered terribly.

One day a friend of mine told me that a coworker had come to work literally exclaiming with joy that he had found a miracle! Jumping up and down! The coworker told my friend that Deb Sesker and NUCCA had changed his life. He had been in constant back pain for five years and was now miraculously pain free! My friend called me immediately and the minute I hung up the phone with him I called Deb at Balance First. I begged her to see me the next day.

I have to admit I had a tremendous amount of skepticism about all of this because I had tried so many other avenues of relief to absolutely no avail. Quick fixes that gave me a few days of relief and then back to the chiropractor again; always worried that I couldn’t do any activity to my full potential for fear of aggravating my pain. I had been disappointed so many times that I was incredibly skeptical.

BUT, without hope there is nothing, so I always kept the faith that I would find the fix. And I found her!

I have lived a very different life after my first visit five years ago. Except for the occasional visit back to Deb for an adjustment because of self-injury (mistakenly shoveling snow, haphazardly climbing trees, or lively yard work), I live virtually pain-free. I, too, have had a miracle!! I can do all the activities I love to do; gardening, hiking, biking, sitting pain-free at a two-hour concert, or just watching a movie on my couch. Life is good.

Make sure to look at the diplomas on her walls. She was valedictorian of her class at Palmer College of Chiropractic at the wonderful age of 39. She is the epitome of what a doctor should be. She genuinely cares for her patient’s health and well-being, and is also a Take Shape for Life Regional Director. She cares about the whole person and will be able to counsel you in many different areas of your life.

I believe in Deb and NUCCA so much that every member of my family has been adjusted by her and THEIR lives have been changed, as well. In my line of business, I have had an inordinate number of opportunities to talk to complete strangers, and in the course of conversation, I discover that these people are in back pain. Maybe it is because I am so aware of how it affects everyday life, or I can see pain in their face when I am talking to them; for whatever reason, I discover they are in back pain. In the past five years, I would estimate that I have encouraged, and literally begged at times, 100 people to visit Deb. I KNEW she could change their lives. Quite a few of those people have contacted me later and thanked me for sharing Deb with them. They, too, had found a miracle!

–RLW

(Editor's note: Remember the objective of upper cervical care is to correct head neck misalignment that is interfering with proper brain to body communication. When this is corrected the body functions at a higher level and can often correct other problems more efficiently on its own. Please do not confuse upper cervical care as a treatment for any condition, disease or symptom.)

Signs and Symptoms Of An Upper Cervical Injury

These are the signs and symptoms that may indicate that you have an upper cervical spine injury, which may have gone undetected for some time. Remember these are just indicators but one should strongly consider being evaluated by an Upper Cervical Doctor if they are experiencing even just some of what is listed below. However, the posture, head tilt sign, shoulder height sign and ear symptoms will, in my opinion, make it a strong possibility that you do have such an injury.

1. Is your posture poor? Do you have rounded shoulders &/or forward head posture? Does your head feel heavy to hold?

2. Is your head tilted to one side and/or your head rotated to one side when you look in a mirror? This can be very subtle.

3. Does your nose or nasal septum deviate to one side? If so, you may find that it deviates towards the side to which your atlas has moved forward (e.g. nose deviates to the left; then atlas is forward on the left)

4. Is one of your shoulders lower than the other? Pull your shoulders back and down and look carefully for one lower than the other. Again it can be subtle.

5. Press firmly but gently with your thumb into the impression just below your skull at the top of your neck on both sides of the back of the neck. This is known as the sub-occipital area. Find the base of your skull and press the soft flesh around that area. Is this tender or painful for you?

6. Do you have some shoulder and/or neck pain/aches, which don't seem to go away?

7. Does your jaw click when you open your mouth? Further check on this; Put your pinkies (little fingers) into your ear canals and chew normally. Do you feel a bumpy dislocation like feeling? This should be a smooth action in your joints.

8. Do you have any lower back pain or mid back pain (under the shoulder blades)?

9. Can you move your head from side to side without pain or restriction? Is there a loss of Range of Motion (ROM)?

10. Do you have any sand paper, clicking or crunching sounds when moving your head from side to side in a 'NO' action?

11. Is your hearing a problem or do you have other ear symptoms (e.g. tinnitus, watery sounds, blockages, vertigo, Meniere’s Disease, otalgia, recurrent ear infections)?

12. Do you often get headaches or migraines?

13. Can you remember any trauma (even minor) to the head, neck or shoulders?

14. Was your birth difficult?

15. How’s your vision? – Sensitive to light, especially at dusk, floaters?

16. Do you experience any dizziness, vertigo or movement sensations? Does the ground seem to move away from you?

17. Do you experience any tingling and burning sensations especially in fingers and toes?

18. Do you have confirmed Scoliosis of the spine, from x-rays? Do you have one leg shorter than the other or is your pelvis higher on one side?

19. Have you had any x-rays, CT scans or MRIs taken of your neck? Do these reveal loss of normal neck curve), even a small amount?

What Can Upper Cervical Care Do For _______?

I don't know about you but I often get questions similar to the ones below and I thought Dr. O'Shea does a great job of answering them. While this post is not written from an Upper Cervical Care perspective directly it illustrates, hopefully, the mindset that many patients start at and where we hope to take them. He has a focus on nutrition which, while not being my focus, I feel is as equally important to a good nerve supply. I like his no nonsense approach and putting the responsibility directly where it should be, with the patient. Not saying we do not have a responsibility but each individual person is ultimately and totally responsible for their own health. Anyway, here is what Dr. O'Shea has to say, enjoy.

From THE LAST RESORT
by Tim O'Shea

(Read the whole article here)

People keep asking me - what can you do for diabetes? What can you give me for arthritis? What do you got for high blood pressure, weight loss, thyroid, hot flashes, cancer, reflux, chronic fatigue... What they're really saying is - what magic bullet can you give me that will allow me to continue my current lifestyle of self abuse? I know where this idea came from. It's how we're raised: solving health problems is not our responsibility. See the doctor. He'll know what to give us.

When it comes to health, we try the easiest stuff first. Doctor appointments, tests, MRI, procedures, drugs, and more drugs - sometimes even surgery. All the things that THEY do - anything that doesn't require our participation. The comforting illusion that we're doing something about our problem by letting somebody else do it.

After a while, when all this has failed, a little light goes on - for some. And that's the idea that these guys really don't know what they're doing. And that if you're going to stop this downward spiral, it'll be totally 100% up to you.

Blind luck may suddenly reveal that the cause of most of your health problems is what you're putting in your mouth, both food and drugs.

And now you've come to that point of self-loathing or desperation or confusion or being fed up or whatever where you really want to make a change because you know you have to. Maybe it's a chronic digestive problem. Or a "weak heart." Or diabetes. Or chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, or MS. Or arthritis, or allergies, or asthma. Or a cross reaction from those combinations of medications that all those guys are giving you, without much consideration or concern, after that 5 minute office visit. With a nurse.

Lotta people jumping ship here. And many of you are washing up on my beach. After we start getting the spine in order, you want to know what else you can do. That's when we start looking at detox - cleaning out poisons that are stuck in the colon, the blood, the tract, the arteries. Rotting food, experimental medications, years of over the counter stuff, all those party drugs - it's stuck inside you. Time to clean house. Time to try something - anything, because whatever you've been doing so far just isn't working. You know you're dying, and that's not just an expression.

So here's your last resort - participation . Do-it-yourself health care. Many people find out, some too late, that this is the only thing that was ever going to work in the first place. What particular disease you have doesn't really matter that much. So much of it is just a name game anyway - they're usually just guessing. If your body's going to survive, the same rules of cell nutrition apply in every case. No matter how advanced your particular problem, you're still just flesh and blood like every one else. Your body follows the same physical laws. Every day you're alive, certain fundamental problems occur for your cells. Either these problems get solved or they don't.

It's really very simple once you realize that you're only going to be putting stuff in your mouth that will do one of two things:

cleanse and/or nourish

Couldn't be simpler. No matter what ideas you may have or what physical condition you're trying to solve, or what you've been through, if some of your cells are still alive, this is the basic program, the starting line for everyone.

So give yourself one last break. Whatever you need to do to get the self confidence to win this battle, do it. If this is the hardest thing you've ever had to do, seems like life's been pretty easy so far.

Quoting Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right”.