Return to Sanity

"My patient, Jim, worked ads an orderly in a mental institution. Jim's job included calming down and restraining difficult and sometimes violent patients. he usually got the upper hand, but sometimes the inmates won. He'd come in for an adjustment and scratched up, bitten and subluxated.
"A sucker punch, Doc. I didn't see it coming. She really surprised me."
But he did more than fight inmates. He also took more manageable patients out for walks and drives.

One evening, Jim appeared for his appointment with a tall, good-looking and very wary eighteen-year-old.
"Hi Jim, who is your friend?" I asked.
"This is Larry. He's an inmate. He was committed about eight months ago by his family. He's been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic - hears voices. His condition hasn't improved and he's on lots on meds (medications).
"Want to give Larry an adjustment?"
Larry let me palpate his neck and even agreed to lie on his side fort an upper cervical adjustment. His atlas was out. I positioned the drop headpiece and set it up on his neck. I probably won't get another chance to do this, I thought to myself.
The headpiece dropped down and Larry jumped up. It looked like he went from lying position to a standing one with no intermediate positions. "What did you do to me?" he yelled.
"I, uh, I adjusted your atlas, it was out." Not my finest patient lecture.
"It felt like you stuck a sword through my head, " said Larry.
I turned to Craig for some kind of help but he was doubled up in laughter. "Funniest thing I've seen. You should see your face Dr Tedd. "
Eventually he came up and put his arm around Larry. "Hey, he does this to me all the time. Let's go get some pizza. See you in a couple of days doc." They drove away. I never saw Larry again.

Jim came in two days later, "How's Larry?" were the first words out of my mouth.
"Oh yeh, I meant to tell call you doc. They've cut back Larry's meds. He suddenly seems better. The psychiatrists are convinced the drugs finally started working." Jim laughed.

Jim came by the next week with more news, "Larry was taken off all meds today. The voices have stopped, and his family is coming in tomorrow to bring him home." "He's back to normal? No more strange behaviour?" I asked. "Well, there's just one thing that's upsetting the staff." "What's that?" "He keeps telling people he wants to be a chiropractor." Tedd Koren, D.C.

A great story from the book Chicken Soup for the Chiropractic Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Dr Fabrizio Mancini that I saw on the bookshelf of my wonderful Chiro Dr Kingsley and he was kind enough to lend it to me.