This article was originally published on www.avp.com (the website for the Association of Volleyball Professionals)
By Hans Stolfus
As
you can see, there’s no ‘Advertisement’ tag in the upper right hand
corner of this page. No one has paid me to dispense the endorsement
you’re about to read. I simply feel compelled to share my story as
others suffering from a similar condition may benefit greatly from this
information.
Anyone
who followed my short-lived career on the sand is aware things began to
dramatically unravel in 2007 after an acute neck injury limited my
mobility to a point where nonstop health maintenance and physical
therapy care were necessary just to continue competing. And even then my
game was submarginal at best, only I didn’t have another source of
income, so the motto became “fight through it” or pack my bags and move
to the third pillar under the ‘Pier.’
Pain
and tightness turned to pressure. Pressure turned to headaches and
eventual migraines. Migraines turned to a life without light and meals
spent on the floor. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.
I
saw chiropractors, physical therapists, massage therapists,
acupuncturists, Rolfers, Heller Care Professionals, trainers, medical
doctors, migraine, pain and cervical spine specialists, and
rheumatologists. I visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the
Headache Institute in Newport Beach, Calif., and Cedars Sinai in Los
Angeles, Calif.
Diagnosis
by Karen Newcomer at Mayo: nothing. Mild degeneration between C4-C5-C6
(vertebrae of the cervical spine) and some moderately bad posture likely
attributed to the pectus excavatum headlining my sternal cavity.
Diagnosis
& Treatment by Philip O’Carroll at the Headache Institute: botox
(yes, botox) into the neck muscles to release tension, nightly nerve
pain meds, Treximet for Migraines, and a range of motion routine I had
received from at least 36 previous practitioners.
Diagnosis
& Treatment by Steven Graff-Radford at Cedars Sinai: two successive
nerve injections and a Radiofrequency Neurotomy on the nerves
surrounding C2 and C3. Yes, that’s right; I had them burn off nerve
endings with the purpose of interfering daily pain signals. I resorted
to the unthinkable. It was that or take a detour off PCH into the
underlying brush like Junior Seau. And although it removed some of the
immediate pain and pressure, it did nothing to fix the root of the
problem.
Fast
forward three months… walk by a “Busy Body” in Newport Beach, decide to
stop in and inquire about a rowing machine for my apartment complex gym
— as normal exercise remained completely out of the question, even
after the neurotomy — explain my situation to the sales guy, listen to
his “you should see this guy” spiel, roll my eyes invisibly, take the
chiropractor’s card — which he just so happened to have on him — as to
not seem rude, throw the card in the center council of my car, and then
proceed to wait three weeks to dial the number and hear how this guy
could somehow magically be ‘different‘ than all the rest.
To
make an incredibly long story short, it turned out the Neurotomy wasn’t
my last option after all. Although I had seen somewhere in the range of
300 previous chiropractors over the years, this guy’s practice was
unlike anything I had previously heard of or experienced, focusing on
the positioning of C1 (Atlas) and C2 (Axis) and their relationship to
the brain stem, spinal cord, and entire central nervous system.
He
used a series of numerous unorthodox x-rays, a prism-based stereoscopic
viewing method to make each film ‘3D,’ a set of protractor-based
measurements drawn on each ‘subluxated’ vertebrae, a heat sensitive
instrument to test neurological transmission, a specific table to
determine body symmetry, and a scientific technique to bring it all
together and locate the problem so it could be fixed.
Bottom
line: back in ’07 my atlas (C1) had been spun like a top and was
pinching off a host of pain related nerves just beneath my skull ever
since. One adjustment, which involved zero cracking or spinning of the
head like typical ‘chiropractic,’ and not only did the pain and pressure
disappear, but my vision improved, my short term memory began to
return, and life started to seem like something worth living again. The
procedure was most certainly heavy and intense, and prevented me from
moving my head in any direction for 24 hours as a precautionary measure,
but was, without a doubt, worth its weight in gold. My life changed the
instant those nerves finally freed up, and I can’t imagine going back
and feeling the way I did for almost four years ever again. And ready
for this, it’s held. My body just needed to go back to the way it was
meant to be and the rest has taken care of itself.
That’s it. Don’t want to preach, just want to inform. I tried it all and my solution came at a small office in Yorba Linda, Calif. at the hands of a gentleman by the name of Dr. David Topping.
There’s only a handful of upper cervical “Blair” chiropractors in
California and not many more scattered throughout the U.S. Why? I don’t
want to get too ‘conspiracy theorist,’ but frankly there’s no profit
margin in healing someone with only one visit. And that’s what
practitioners like Topping are doing. They’re freeing up the nerve
pathways from the brain to the body and finally allowing the body to
heal itself. Not saying it’s for everybody, or that all patients will
require only one adjustment as age and degeneration play an important
role, but if you’ve got neck or back pain and have run the gamut like I
had, might be time to try one more option. It could finally change
everything.
And
in case you’re wondering, I will play beach volleyball again. Maybe not
at the professional level, but definitely for fun down in Corona Del
Mar on a casual Saturday afternoon.
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