Spectrum Disorders: Our Mystery Case of the Month!
Can I tell you a story that means A LOT to me?
Let’s flashback to the early part of this year in late January. I sat in the car and watched Erin walk toward the elevators at Erlanger, a local hospital. She was picking up the birth certificate for our new little baby, Solace. As I waited in a vacant spot in the dim lit parking garage, it was just like any normal day. It was, at least until the business phone rang, and I began having a conversation that would later shift the trajectory of how I operate my practice.
The person on the phone was a young woman who was interested in having her 3 year old daughter evaluated for chiropractic care. As a rule, I always refer children to our local pediatric chiropractors first. I went through my typical recommendation to refer her appropriately. She was hesitant to accept. She insisted that I give her daughter a chance. I responded by saying how much I trusted these other chiropractors, and that, when it comes to children, I typically only work with more complex cases. She again insisted, and began to explain to me how her daughter fit that criteria because she was experiencing neurodevelopment delays, missing milestones, and becoming disconnected emotionally. She was very well researched and cited a study that was conducted in Australia. I was familiar with the study, which revealed that specific forms of chiropractic care in children with neurodevelopment delays yielded incredible improvements in their development. She wanted the same thing for her daughter.
I was touched and impressed, and in that moment, I felt the best “next step” was to invite them in for a consultation. At this point, I still was reluctant to agree to accept her daughter as a client because although my specific technique works very well with this particular sector of the population, I mainly work with adults.
Our first day
I’m not sure how other doctors are when it comes to taking on cases, but I invest a lot of energy into mine. Leading up to our meeting, I had already laid awake a few nights thinking of what this little girl would be like, what her story was, and how she perceived the world. When the time finally came to meet her, I was pleasantly surprised.
I was not expecting SO much energy and cheer as she ran through the open front door at Novel to greet me. She even knew my name! I became acquainted with her and her mother, and we all sat in our reception room to chat. I told her mother I wanted to watch her behavior to see if I noticed anything that seemed “off”. I began noticing things one by one: significant left head tilt, a periodic “scrunching” of the face, an internally rotated left foot, and her speech was mumbly and scrambled. She also seemed to yell everything she wanted to communicate.
Her mother filled me in on all that she was doing to support her little girl. Swim lessons, occupational therapy, and other therapies as well. Her daughter also seemed to be the problem child in class, which was really frustrating for everyone. After meeting, I agreed to an initial evaluation for her case.
Later that night
I was wrecked emotionally. I kept thinking of this little girl and asking myself questions. “How does she perceive the world? Is she frustrated? Is she confused? Am I the best fit to take care of her? What will her life look like years from now?” These kinds of questions hit me a lot when I go home. It may seem kind of funny to you, depending on what you know of chiropractic, but it is not uncommon for someone to have their life totally transformed after care. For me, there’s always a lot on the line — we are working with the nervous system after all.
What we found and what we did.
When our young little client came back in for her reevaluation, her mother and I had to get creative. It was not easy corralling this little blinking light bulb of a 3 year old. Things would be fine, and then they were not — then again, fine, and then not. I did get a fossa temperature reading, an objective measure of heat distribution over the C1 transverse processes (AKA: nervous system balance). I discovered a high level of heat on her left side, which correlated with hypertonic muscular guarding from the top of her neck all the way down to her hips (AKA: Her body was “out of wack”). She also was hypersensitive to touch. Again, I agreed to move her to the next step, which was to begin care with us. I recommended a shorter care plan than I typically do because I wanted to see how she would respond.
Boy, was I surprised!
She. Did. Brilliant!!! After her first adjustment, her mother noticed an immediate difference. At first she was sluggish, which is fairly common. When you receive an adjustment, your body goes into rest and recuperate mode. After a couple of days, we began noticing better behavior. She came back in for a follow up and was holding her adjustment! The muscle tension had dropped and so had her temperature imbalances. I took a deep breath and sighed a huge sigh of relief.
We continued for the next 2 weeks, then the first month was behind us, and we were noticing the following changes: hypersensitivity to touch - gone, improved speech, no longer disrupting class, better emotional interactions with family and peers, and more. The one thing we changed? Her nervous system was now in balance. Her brain was talking to her body in a better, more organized way. She was in a greater state of ease.
“Mystery case or not, and how is it changing your trajectory?”
In this little girl’s case, she continues to improve and reach new milestones every month. She still comes in for a check up about one time a month because that’s how long she currently holds her adjustment. There are still some tougher days in the mix, but the majority of the time, she is growing, talking, and playing to her heart’s content (and especially to the content of her mother).
Cases like these often can fly under the radar. People can feel “tapped out” on resources for support, so yes, it can be a mystery to many. This little girl taught me something very impactful. She taught me that I have a responsibility to people out there that need what I provide. Because of this experience, I realized that I needed to provide support for this population in my community. Many of my colleagues have programs in their offices for this community, and I had never considered it until now. I saw the need, I felt the responsibility, and now I have decided to take action.
Therefore, I have an announcement.
I have recently begun specific training for this population and have started implementing programs in our office to support and help children with neurodevelopmental and behavioral disorders in the Chattanooga area. These programs will include educational workshops which will help create awareness, and help parents and practitioners understand the common threads of childhood neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorder, OCD, ODD, and Tourette's.
I will also be providing chiropractic care for a select number of cases each month and will be limiting the number of cases I see to ensure quality and focus with each case. I will still be seeing the adult population and chronic conditions populations in practice, but I feel I would be out of integrity if I did not make myself available to serve these children knowing what I know now. I also understand “It takes a village”. I am only one part of the solution, and I have already been connecting with a team of service professionals and specialists in Chattanooga to serve in areas that I cannot for these kids.