Preparing

I am beyond excited to take a trip home to Florida! I cannot wait to see everyone. I am very excited my brother is graduating. He has worked so hard and he deserves a day dedicated to him.
My family is my life and this has been the longest I have ever gone without seeing them. There are so many things I want to do while I am at home ... like go to the beach and actually be hot! (Hasn't happened yet in CA)

Family here I come! Thursday could not come quick enough!

Covering Shawn's Patients

This week Shawn (the other doctor in the office) is out of town at a seminar. I am covering some of his patients for the week. Today is the reason why I have this blog in the first place ... you could only have experiences like today if you were a female.

It started out with a Personal Injury case coming in and telling me what areas HE FELT were out ... like I can't figure it out on my own. As I'm working on him he proceeds to tell me his C1 is out at well on the right. My reply was, "Actually it's your occiput, but thank you so much for your help, " obviously with much sarcasm. After his adjustments he was getting up telling me that the adjustments seemed easy and was I sure I didn't need to go harder. I replied with yes I'm sure, I made sure I was specific, how do you feel? He said he felt great (and I had a little ah ha in my head). He then asked, "How old are you now?" UHHHHH are you serious! Come on, have some class guy! "How old am I?" I asked, "28." He then muttered under his breath, "you look 12." Normally this would have been a compliment to me, except the way he said it didn't sound that way. As he walked out of his office he said in a loud voice "enjoy 28!" I said back, "Oh I will!"

You would think it would end there, however there was another guy later on. This one gave me a "wow I was surprised you got that" after I adjusted his hips. "It's all about timing not force" was my reply. He then apologized because he realized he offended me. I laughed and said it was ok and I get comments like that all the time. I told him a couple of offensive stories and he laughed. He apparently took this as a license to make fun of me and for the rest of the visit he made one sexist comment after another.

The difference between the two men was the tone in their voice. Even though there was more comments by the second guy, you could tell he was joking and he gave me much credit for everything I was doing. Where the first guy was almost disgusted by me trying to be a female in a males profession. I have some news for you guys ... I enjoy this and I am not going anywhere! You do not have to be a male to be a talented chiropractor.

Earth Day Fair

Yesterday was the Earth Day Fair at Balboa Park. I was very nervous things weren't going to go well and we would have wasted money on this fair and never got any patients from it. Even though the fair started slow, it quickly picked up pace about lunch time. Becky was a great help! She really knows how to talk someone up, haha.
I signed up 8 new patients!!!!!! For those of you who don't know, this is AMAZING! I had all of them pay up front so if they didn't show up for their appointment then I still got paid, however everyone showed up today so I guess it worked. I am excited to start treating more people.
Thanks to Trevell and Grace who both took pictures with some kids who were walking around the fair. Thanks to Mike as well ... even though he didn't make it for actual fair, he did drive all the way from Chula Vista and sit in traffic for forever before admitting he couldn't make it. I really appreciate the effort.
Again the event was a great success and I appreciate everyone who contributed more than they know.

OTC Trip with the Cousins

On Thursday I took Cierra and Isa to the Olympic Training Center. The both got to see me work on some of the athletes. Cierra received a lesson in the hurdles and we watched some pole vaulting. Everyone had a great day. The weather was beautiful and it was nice to have them around. At the end of out visit both Cierra and Isa had their first chiropractic adjustment. It is always enjoying to adjust someone for the first time and show them it doesn't hurt. Cierra was surprised.

Trip to the Vet

On Wednesday I took Neely to the vet. She was chasing a bunny and tore the cuticle from the nail and since then it looks as though it could have been infected. I brought her to a place in Alpine (small town just west of Descanso). We were in the waiting room for about 40 minutes before the vet tecs decided to try to clip Neely's nails. I warned them she flops around because she does not like this at all. The ladies still persisted and went on to successfully trim her back nails. I was surprised. The proceeded to the front and that is when the flopping began. Neely pulled her paw back and whacked the one tec in the lip. She was not happy, however, I did warn her.
The doctor came in soon after and examined her nail. He kept saying that the nail itself was fine, but they want to place her under anesthetic and remove the nail. This seemed completely unnecessary! If the nail was fine then why are you removing it? The doctor paused for a moment and seemed as though there wasn't any other option and he didn't know what to do ... this should have been where I walked out of the office, but I was concerned for Neely and wanted to find out what I should do. The doctor said he was going to send in Connie to explain it to me.
Connie was the office manager. The second she entered the exam room she had an attitude and seemed very angry with me. She started with a stern voice, the same voice a mother uses when their child has been misbehaving. She told me "the nail is cracked, we need to place your dog under anesthesia and remove the nail." "The vet said the nail was fine and it wasn't cracked," I replied. This arguing went back and forth a few times until she told me I was stupid,if I didn't like what she was saying I could leave, and how could I not understand. I let out a "wooooh" because at this point she was yelling at me. How could something so small go from zero to 60 in such a sort period of time? I was confused.
I explained to Connie that I did not want to leave, I just wanted to know who knew what was wrong with my dog. At this point she pulled Neely off the 4ft high table by her collar and Neely hit her hip on the floor and started yelping. She went to slap me, I placed my arm in the way and she grabbed my arm and kept yelling. "You're stupid and you're leaving now!" Everything was happening so fast. I told her "ok I will leave, but why are you yelling at me?" Her response was "because you're stupid." Connie had me by the arm and Neely by the ear and collar when she yanked us out of the exam room and into the lobby where she pushed me and I tripped. She caught up to me and grabbed my arm again to throw me out of the front door. At this point she was hurting my arms and I actually began to cry because I was so confused. She threw us out the front door and slammed the door behind us.
Now what i want to know is how everyone in the office could let this lady act this way. Every single employee was in the room when Connie came in and everyone witnessed the situation. Is this how you run an office????? No matter how unruly a patient is you NEVER act this way!
This was such an odd situation I began to question things ... what did I do wrong? how could I change the situation? If I were to do it over what would I change? Did I offend the lady? Was I sorry? Why should I be sorry? Uhhhhhhh
Needless to say Wednesday was a LONG day!

Mike's visit to the OTC

Today the big man (no pun intended) was on campus (aka - the OTC). His name is Mike and he is the head of the medical committee for the Olympic Training Center. This meant that Brian and I had to keep quiet and try to work on people between his random visits to the track building. I was working on Trevell when I told him that Mike was here and I wasn't exactly sure what he looked like. Trevell said he would keep an eye out and point him out. About 45 minutes later while I was working on Tommy I saw a man turn the corner behind the track building. I quickly told Tommy he had about 2 minutes to sit up and let me adjust both shoulders and for him to tell me how he felt. Why 2 minutes you ask? Because I figured this is how long it would take the man to reach the door. Just as Tommy was standing up off the table and I pretended to stretch my quad (as to not look suspicious) Trevell rounded the corner and tried to pick up the stop on the door to the building but the stopper bent backwards and he almost fell into Mike who was now trying to enter the room. Trevell apparently saw Mike from the other side of the track and sprinted over to warn me. It was hilarious to see him almost fall into Mike. I was very grateful and touched, until Trevell explained he was being selfish because if I wasn't allowed to treat him how would he be able to run. Wow, and here I thought he was looking out for his girl haha.

The Reason

So in recent days I have had to explain what I do (you know as a chiropractor) and how I became interested. This story has become more than exhausting to tell. I have had so many interesting things happen to me on my road to becoming a doctor that I believe people get a kick out of them. My life as a FEMALE chiropractor is more than hilarious. Sometimes I think to myself ... "If I were only 350lbs and wore gigantic glasses would people consider me a better doctor upon first glance?"

Well, here I go to tell my story ...