Why Cats Love Canadians

Many years ago a young Chiropractic college 2nd year student came to me for assessment at home with severe dizziness, headaches, panic attacks, neck pain and nausea.

This had come on after she was manhandled by a slightly enthusiastic classmate during motion palpation.

Sudden onset severe dizziness, nausea and neck pain, lead to a rapid referral to hospital to rule out a stroke.

Thankfully there was no stroke, though I did note on the history for the radiologist “ ? stroke post Chiropractic manipulation” !!

So months and months later, she is really struggling and is missing more than 50% of her classes with such strong symptoms.

She is very upset.

Upset about the symptoms but also about the way she has been treated by the college.

She has been examined by the lead neurology tutor who has declared she is all normal, with no issues.

But, of course, she is not fine, she is missing over half her classes and is very distressed.

Finally, she sees one of the head honchos.

He does no examination of any kind and confidently tells her “there was never anything wrong with your neck, it was all in your head , it is all psychological”.

Well, I examined her and I disagreed 100% (with their clinical opinion and their morals).

Using the muscle testing I learned from Simon King at Afferent Input, I was able to pin point quite a few issues, and treat them accordingly.

Now, I was certainly a little nervous as she did have some pretty strong symptoms and I wasn’t able to draw a perfect line between them and the issues I found.

BUT I know what normal is, and if I can improve neuro-nechanical function, usually symptoms follow.

We made some great progress over a few sessions.

But then we plateaued.

I was honest in my assessment, good functional changes, good symptom changes, but we had definitely reached a plateau.

So, I asked for a second opinion and some help.

I suggested she get in touch with my good friend Neil Cox DC.

Neil specialises in Neuro-Impulse Protocol (NIP) which is a system of its own and different from how I practice.

Thankfully, Neil was able to fit the last pieces of the jigsaw together and a few years later she graduated.

During one of the sessions she brought a friend over, nice chap, Canadian.

He was sat watching and our cat, Charlie (RIP big fella), came to say hello.

Here he is taking an opportunity to sit on me while I was attending to the log burner –  look how pleased he is.

Charlie just loved a stroke, but then suddenly Canadian man, says (imagine the accent) “Dude, is your cat OK, he’s rumbling…”

I was a bit perturbed by this, so I leant in and had a listen.

Charlie is very happily purring, and feeling very pleased with himself for making a new friend.

Turns out he had never heard a cat purr before, he just didn’t know it was a thing.

Maybe there are no cats in Canada?

Maybe they are not allowed to purr as it is not inclusive to dogs?

Do they have raccoons instead of pet cats?

As the saying goes, you don’t know what you don’t know.

This is what practice is all about – that is maybe why it is called practice, cos you have to practice the art of neuro-mechanical care?

This is a lifetime of mastery, a job never complete.

You need to stay humble, remember as Ryan Holiday says.

As John Wheeler who helped develop the H bomb said.

The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know.

We all have patients that believe we can walk on water. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are, we all have them, they are true believers.

Do not believe your own hype, it leads to problems, mastery never ends.

Always stay a student, stay humble and follow this guy’s advice.

“A persistent cycle of pragmatic learning, experimental adaptation, and constant revision driven by a uniquely disciplined & focused will”