Dr. John Tysdal

Witnessing Natural Power

Of all the patients I’ve treated, one in particular comes to mind. This patient came into the office as a last ditch effort for pain relief. She had been dealing with migraines and neck pain for the past 10 years.

She and I began to review her medical history where she mentioned dealing with chiari malformation (kee-ah-ree mal-for-may-shun) and pseudotumor cerebri (soo-dow-too-mr sr-ee-bree). The primary care physician and other doctors she had been seeing hadn’t been able to really help with the pain she was experiencing.

From there, we proceeded to do physical exams and orthopedic testing to uncover the root cause of her pain. As I was doing the physical examination, her neck and upper back were extremely tight. This indicated that her traps and neck extensor muscles were putting a lot of pressure on the base of her skull.

I knew from my years of experience and training in school that her great occipital and lesser occipital nerves were triggering her chronic headaches. We set up an 18 visit treatment plan that consisted of adjustments and 8 visits for dry needling.

The goal was to get the muscles around her nerves to relax, so we dry needled the base of her skull. After 2 weeks of care, the severity of her headaches began to diminish, which led to her becoming more joyful and talkative each visit.

By the last 2 or 3 visits she reported her headaches hadn’t been present in over a week. This relief brought a new light to her and her husband. He and I eventually met and he shook my hand and thanked me for what I’d done for his wife and their family. This also led to me start helping him with his back pain.

This experience solidified my passion for chiropractic, not only because I was able to assist someone with headaches, but because I helped a family get back on track so they could live their life freely.