Supporting the body in a crisis

Just last week, we were confronted with an experience that all parents of young children dread. Our 4-year-old boy, while playing on the sofa, had a nasty fall which left him with a completely immobilized arm. After deciding that a fracture was a high possibility, we set off for the hospital. Now, you’ll no doubt be pleased to hear that this story does end well! However, the experience of guiding him through the days that led to a resolution reminded us of our absolute belief that integrated healthcare really is the best way to help the body to heal.

There is often a common misconception that chiropractors are “anti-doctors”, but from our perspective, nothing could be further from the truth. We fully appreciate the value and necessity for medical care and medication, and have the utmost respect for those who work in this field. However, we do notice that many people lean rather too heavily on medication, and lack the open-mindedness to complement medical care with more natural approaches. In our case, the most essential thing to do with our son was to ascertain whether or not he had severely injured his arm or suffered a fracture. We may know a lot about the human body as chiropractors, but of course we can’t fix broken bones! Luckily for us, our little boy had not fractured his arm, but he did have to undergo x-rays to confirm this.

This is where homeopathy comes into the picture. While an x-ray is an excellent tool for imaging the body and checking for bony injury, it does not come without risks, and the exposure to radiation is something which we are particularly aware of. Once our son had undergone such investigations, we were keen to help his body to clear itself of the radiation, and asked our homeopath to prescribe some remedies to help with this. His body reacted to the remedies with a good digestive clearout – a fantastic body response to detox and rid itself of unnecessary toxins. What a wonderful way to use medical interventions as necessary but also use alternative therapies to bring balance and equilibrium back to the body. We also continued to use homeopathy over the following days to guide his body’s healing and help restore his vitality and energy.

Of course, as chiropractors, we also know that a chiropractic adjustment is a wonderful tool to align the body and help guide its healing. Over the days while our son’s arm was still immobile, Chloe gave him several adjustments – not only to ease the compensations that were manifesting in the rest of his body, but also to free up his nervous system to promote healing and restore function. After each adjustment he had renewed energy and some increase in mobility. The movement and balance of the rest of his body also improved greatly.

Not forgetting ourselves in the process, we made sure that we were all well hydrated, eating nourishing foods and taking regular arnica and rescue remedy ourselves. Arnica is an excellent homeopathic remedy for shock, and rescue remedy is a Bach flower remedy which aids in times of distress. Sleep was also a high priority, so we tried to ensure that everyone was as rested and recuperated as possible.

In the end, and after 3 doctor consultations, we finally discovered that our son had suffered quite a profound episode of a “pulled elbow”. This is effectively a partial dislocation of the still-developing elbow joint, very common in young toddlers after a fall or following traction on the arm. It can be very painful, and above all results in total immobilisiation of the arm. We were lucky enough to see a wonderful doctor, who was able to relocate the joint back into position with minimal distress.

Phew! Quite a week for us all, and certainly a big learning curve for us as chiropractors. This story just goes to show that many symptoms and ailments can be supported with a range of therapies, even when medical intervention is indicated. We have no doubt that the combination of chiropractic, homeopathy, bach flower remedies and self-care allowed this whole process to resolve as quickly as possible and with minimal distress and residual symptoms as possible.

And finally, a little piece of advice we can all take from a toddler – when asked “what do you remember about hurting your arm?”, our son simply replied with “I already forgot!” I think we could all use a lesson like this in how to live in the present as only children truly know how to do :)