Misalignment

A while back I did a faceplant on the two cement stairs leading up to my front door. I had just refilled my birdfeeder and was heading back inside. It wasn’t old age loss of balance; it was simply not looking where I was going while assuming the walkway and yard were both the same level. I had never paid attention to the roughly 2-inch difference, somehow avoiding the inevitable. The toe of my right shoe caught the anomaly.

As I slammed into the stairs my nose aligned with the first step, my right eye staring at its gravelly texture, the top my head pinned against the second step. I remember hearing a distinct thud. My right arm was wedged under my sprawled body. I called out to my gardener who was weed whacking the side yard, but he didn’t hear me. As I picked myself up, little drops of blood fell onto the stairs. Once inside, I surveyed the damage in the bathroom mirror: no broken nose or glasses or teeth.

Embarrassed, I decided not to tell my family. They would assume the worst. I did tell one of my best friends who understood completely—and celebrated with me that I’d avoided the worst. However, four months later I began suffering recurring headaches. I made an appointment with my chiropractor and learned that, in fact, I experienced a whiplash when I abruptly took my dive into the cement stairs. All fixed, my life resumed its pace.

Three months passed. Then both my eyes blurred and I ended up in the ER where nothing was found to be wrong with me. Sent to an ophthalmologist—nothing wrong with my eyes either. But a lingering pressure remained at my right temple, and I just didn’t feel good. Again, I made an appointment with my chiropractor who, incidentally, employs non-force adjustments.

Non-force chiropractic is a gentle, low-impact system of chiropractic diagnosis and treatment that realigns bones, discs, ligaments, and muscles without the rapid twisting, cracking, or popping sounds common in traditional high-force manipulation.

He found several issues, including misalignment of a bone right behind my eyes, probably leftover from my faceplant on the cement stairs.

The sphenoid is a complex, butterfly-shaped bone located deep in the center of the skull, right behind the eyes and nose. The optic nerve (which gives you sight) and several major blood vessels pass directly through tiny openings in the sphenoid bone.

Feeling completely better, my body is at rest, aligned, and quiet. It’s like a little miracle has been granted me—which sometimes comes in a familiar package. A miracle, nonetheless, because standard chiropractic training doesn't typically focus on manipulating skull bones, which is why the average chiropractor won't adjust them. My non-force chiropractor did.