Author: Chiro1

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Thank You Celebration!

As March comes to a close, we realize Connect Chiropractic is fast approaching its one year anniversary! There is only one way to feel at such an important time as this…

Grateful.  

We are grateful for so many things, especially the connections we have made in and out of the office. We are grateful for the patients that we’ve seen and the referrals they’ve sent. We are grateful for the positive reviews and even the less than positive feedback. (Yes, that first website was a bit of a mess!) We are grateful that we have been able to help so many people and help so many women through their pregnancies. We are especially grateful that we have been able to meet so many adorable new babies!

So I’ll get to the point. The best was to share in our success and to share our gratitude is to share that with you and your friends and family!!

We look forward to meeting and working with you and your loved ones.
Please don’t hesitate to call with questions at (919)307-9610 or schedule here!
As Always
Keep Moving,Dr Cate Niezgoda
*PS – if you decide to purchase additional treatment, you have the legal right to change your mind within 3 days and receive a refund. Not valid for medicare patients*

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Treatment Expectations

Its always your choice

Earlier today I had someone come to do work at my house. I had gotten the name through a referral partner and I already knew that the person was a good cost. My expectations were moderately high going into the visit based on both cost and the fact that he was a recommendation. After he left, I sat back and thought about the visit. I thought that he basically “met” my expectations and that was it. I was by no means disappointed, he answered all my questions, and I felt he gave me the information I was looking for and the solution I expected.

That being said, I didn’t see myself jumping up and down to refer anyone to him nor to sing his praises to the internet. Then I had the thought, “I want to exceed my patients’ treatment expectations.”  Working in other offices and for other people rarely let me exceed expectations.  In fact, looking back, it was part of the reason that I felt I needed to start my own practice. Maybe I hadn’t thought those exact words, but it was the feeling I was chasing. I rarely felt that I was able to “wow” patients in the other offices. Either I couldn’t use the full extent of my knowledge based on time constraints or I was required to follow certain payment options and payment plans, and specific ways to “sell” the patient on their treatment I felt they needed. All of these factors strangled my creativity and my ability to connect with the person in front of me.

I want to exceed expectations. I want my patients to come in expecting great things and then receiving not only great things, but being excited and wanting to share their experience. I want to be Instagramable. You know what I mean. Picture the last time you went to dinner at a new restaurant and your food came out and it was presented beautifully. your mouth started watering and you thought, “I NEED to share this moment with everyone I know right now!”

That is the reaction I want. I want you to leave my office and think, “I need to share this experience with EVERYONE!”

I don’t have any pre-fabricated treatment plans before you come into the office. I don’t have a certain treatment protocol for each injury and I don’t have any kind of guarantee of a wellness plan. I want your concerns to be my concerns and I want your goals to be my goals. I want you to tell me your expectations and I want to be able to exceed them. If I personally cannot exceed your expectations, I want to help you find the place where those expectations are exceeded.

Please don’t hesitate to call or email to get answers to your questions.

As always, keep moving.

Dr Cate

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Shoulder Pain Explained

I’ve always been convinced the the shoulder is quite possibly the worst designed joint in the body. Which makes it one of the most interesting to treat!! Lets break down the shoulder and shoulder pain generators today:

The bones of the shoulder consist of the humerus, the scapula and the clavicle with the rib cage and neck serving as attachments for ligaments, tendons and muscles. I think the simplest way to look at how the shoulder works is to imagine a golf ball on a tee and then tip it on its side. The golf ball, would be the head of the humerus and the tee would be the glenoid fossa which is actually part of the scapula, or shoulder blade. Often times, the shoulder will be an area of chronic aching and occasional sharp shooting pain.

The list of muscles involved in shoulder movement is pretty extensive, but lets stick to two that are often problematic and can cause shoulder pain. The pectoralis minor and the serratus anterior, although they are often problematic for different reasons.

"Pectoralis minor muscle and shoulder blade"
“Pectoralis minor muscle and shoulder blade”

The Pectoralis Minor is a small but important muscle beneath the Pectoralis Major. It attaches from the front of a few ribs in the middle of your chest to the coracoid process of the scapula. It is difficult to say what the “Primary function” of the pec minor is because it can play so many different roles. It helps in downward rotation of the scapula, internal rotation of the humerus and protraction of the scapula. If you’re reading this on the computer, take note of your current body position. Odds are your shoulder girdle is doing all 3 of these motions. Considering the fact that you likely sit in this position for upwards of 8 hours a day, there is a good chance your pectoralis minor might be suffering! It frequently becomes a muscle that is overactive and tries to work for most of the other area muscles. It can become knotted, tight, full of adhesions and becomes a shoulder pain generator. (If you want a little more detail of the exact opposites to the pectoralis minor, check out this article!)

Serratus Anterior Muscle
The second muscle I mentioned is the serratus anterior. The way the serratus anterior attaches to the body is really best described by a picture. (See the rotating picture.) It spans anterior ribs and attaches to the medial border of the scapula. When the serratus is working properly, the fibers combine to keep the shoulder blade flat against the ribs. This allows you to fix the movement of your shoulder and therefore move your arms and neck with a stable base. There is a good chance that in order to reach your computer screen and type you might be allowing the serratus anterior to have some time off. As a result, your shoulder blade is not stable, your shoulders are dropping forward and the shoulder muscles in the front of your arm are getting even shorter and tighter. (Think pec minor…)If you want a little more info on what the serratus does, take a look at this article in Dooley Noted.

Here is the part that makes diagnosing a little more difficult. It is easy to assume that the tight muscle is the one that is causing your pain which means we stretch and release the muscle. But sometimes… Its the weak muscle that can cause the pain!

So I’ve just described about 1% of the muscles involved in movement of the shoulder, but I would bet that approximately 80% of those in the desk job population suffer from some dysfunction in these 2 muscles.

I can’t know for certain unless I get my hands on your shoulders and do some testing… but if you’re having shoulder issues, pain, aching, numbness, tingling into the arms and hands or neck tightness, then odds are you could benefit from an evaluation.

And as always,

Keep Moving!

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Healing Time for an injury

knee painHello Friend – I’ve been looking into ideas to continue teaching my readers and a friend suggested I use the most commonly asked questions I hear in the office. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please feel free to comment below and I’ll put it on my list!

How long will this take?

That depends on what is diagnosed, and whether there is one diagnosis or multiple issues. Are you here for simply a spinal check? Or did you have a sudden onset of pain? Do you also have ongoing neck aching that you’d like to treat and fix?

Healing takes time and you need the facts:

 

1. A damaged muscle will have a healing time between 3 and 6 weeks to heal. (Think pulled hamstring.)
2. A damaged tendon or ligament can take 2-6 months in healing time. (Think twisted ankle.)
3. A broken bone will take 6-8 weeks to heal. (Think broken arm that gets a cast.)
4. A ligament or tendon damaged from “repetitive stress trauma” can actually take months to years to realign and regrow properly. (Think neck pain that started slowly after years on a computer with poor posture.)

 

Together we will address your complaints and determine what the possible diagnosis is/are. You will always have options in treatment.

 

1. Relief Care: We address primarily the area that is in pain. We help that area heal and get you back on your feet. The specifics of your treatment plan will be discussed as we begin your treatment.
2. Corrective Care: We dive deeper into the problem, work on the area that is in pain, and then look further to determine other areas in the body that may be contributing to that pain cycle or to other pain cycles.
3. Wellness or Preventative Care: We look top to bottom, address all the areas that need maintenance to keep your body functioning 100%. It is especially important in preventing repetitive stress trauma pain and is the type of care that chiropractors provide to their family.
Similar to how we believe that if you have teeth you should have a dentist, I believe that if you have a spine, you need a chiropractor. (If you don’t have a spine, then goodness, I would love to meet you as well!)
Similar to how the dentist expects you to go home and brush your teeth daily, floss and follow their instructions,I LOVE to give my patients homework. Movement is important in healing and whether I send you home with simple breathing exercises or more complicated release-activation exercises, they are a valuable part of your treatment plan.
I’m a little different than a lot of chiropractors out there as well. My passion involves a lot more than simply adjusting the spine. I enjoy treating your elbows, shoulders, knees, and headaches. The truth is, there is no one size fits all treatment and there is no one size fits all plan.

Of course you still have questions, so call today and we can get you answers!

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Core Strength

core strength

core strength

 

Core Strength

“I need to strengthen my core muscles” – I’ve heard it from about 93% of my patients at some point.

Let’s discuss your core muscles. It is a term that I think gets misused frequently or thrown around as some sort of buzz word. But if someone says, “You need to strengthen your core” your response should be, “Which muscle?”

Core Muscles

If you’ve been into my office, there is a chance that you’ve heard some variation of my “Your core is like a can of soup” analogy before I’ve ever prescribed core strength exercises.  If not, you need to, so here it goes. Your core muscles need to be like a can of soup. The top of the can is your diaphragm, the bottom of the can is your pelvic floor and the sides of the can are your transverse abdominal muscles, oblique muscles, your spine and your rectus abdominus muscles. Are you picturing it?

Now I want you to picture a soup can made out of different materials. Picture first a normal soup can with the entire can made out of stable material on all parts. Next, imagine the top and the bottom of the soup can are made out of the usual metal and instead of metal sides, they decided to just use the paper label.  Third, picture a soup can where the  the sides are made out of the normal steady material and the bottom (Or the top) of the soup can is made out of something like a plastic grocery bag material.

The first one is great for stacking, rolling, moving and generally works well in all situations. The second soup can might be able to hold up the soup can on its own and maybe contain the contents of the can, but if you attempt to stack anything on top of it, forget it! The whole thing will collapse. Now picture the third can. where the sides are solid, but the top or the bottom are not stable. you can probably sit the can upright without a problem, but you cant pick the can up and move it around very safely. (Imagine if the can was filled with liquid – for example your bladder, and you wanted to move this particular soup can! Uh Oh!)

Does this make sense? If the ENTIRE soup can isn’t stable, then there is no way you can do everything you need your can to do without some problem somewhere. Now here is the difficult part. How do we know what part truly needs work??

This is where myself and many other practitioners enter the picture. We need your history, your previous treatments, your surgeries(Including C-sections!) and scars, your daily routine, every detail about you to help you figure out where, when, how and what EXACTLY you need to be doing to “strengthen your core.” Then and ONLY then can I give you an adequate prescription.

As always, I hope you learned something and if you have any questions, let’s set up an appointment and we can see if we can help you!

Dr Cate

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Fulfilling your Healthy Resolutions

What were your resolutions last year? Do you even remember them? I can tell you that last year I was pretty specific about my resolutions.

  1. Enjoy every minute of wedding planning.
  2. Become a morning person.

I didn’t reach too far, but I chose what I thought to be attainable goals. I succeeded with exactly 50% of my resolutions. I had a GREAT time planning my wedding. The thing about coming a morning person… Not even close.

sunrise
How I imagine mornings would look if I was actually up in time…

I made a rookie mistake with my resolutions. I chose something that wasn’t a definable step. It was an end result and not the details of how to get there. This year I’m going to try again with the morning person thing, only I’m going to label it different. I can’t change a core component of who I am without giving some details of what being a “morning person” actually means.Steaming6

I frequently see patients make a similar mistake by creating a goal of “becoming healthy.” What does “be healthy” mean to you? I want to challenge everyone to baby steps and to change our New Year Resolution into “6 monthly resolutions.” Or a 6 step program to completing your healthy resolutions.

So let me do this with you. I still want to “become a morning person” and I’ve decided to define this as someone that has no problems getting out of bed and enjoying the time spent getting ready for the day. So let’s give this a try…

  1. January: Drink 70 ounces of water each day.
  2. February: No Coffee or caffeine after 10:30am.
  3. March: Begin setting alarm 10 minutes earlier.
  4. April: Actually get up 10 minutes earlier.
  5. May: Do Yoga stretches for 10 minutes before leaving the house
  6. June: Put it all together. Tweak as needed.

As you can see, I’m giving myself a really good amount of time to reach for my healthy resolution and change how I function on a daily basis. Notice that I give myself and entire month to prepare to get out of bed just 10 minutes earlier… Ha!

What are your resolutions? Do you have something based in health? Do you want to get out of pain or start exercising more? Have you been meaning to try to lose weight? Or fill yourself with more self confidence? I suggest looking at the things in the past that have stopped you from getting there and begin to make changes in stages. So for example, if you want to start exercising more, what is usually stopping you? I hear a lot about Knee pain, or ankle pain or fatigue stopping people from exercising. We need to look at that as a separate and primary step in creating your New Years Resolution.

I have no doubt that your coming year is going to be amazing. Just let me know when and where I can help!

Be safe and as always, thank you for reading.

Dr Cate

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The Dull Thud of Headache Pain

headacheIts 2:30 pm and you’ve been spending hours working diligently on your computer. You’re feeling great about what you’ve accomplished when suddenly you start to feel that dull thud into the back and sides of your head. Headache pain! UGH! Horrible timing for a headache! (But then again, is there ever good timing for a headache?!)

With just a few questions to rule out anything more serious, those 2 sentences will put almost any practitioner onto the right path for diagnosis and treatment of your cervicogenic headache and once you can recognize the signs of headache pain, you can likely stop the headache in its tracks right now as well!

Did you know that women are 4 times more likely than men to suffer from cervicogenic headache pain than men and that the average age is 43 years old?  (Cited Here) As we increase computer use, time spent driving, and the steady increase in electronics, as well as holding our stress in ‘our neck’ its easy to see that the the mechanics of our necks have been changing.

What is a “Cervicogenic Headache”? Essentially, Cervicogenic means that the pain in your head is originating in your neck, or your ‘cervical spine’. Often times, you will instinctively start rubbing your neck once the head pain starts. That is a great indicator of what is causing your symptoms.  As our knowledge of neurology changes, we are now able to more accurately describe how the nervous system in your neck causes the pain in your head. Understanding how your brain confuses neck signals is a complicated discussion, and one that you probably don’t want to try to think about as you currently have a headache. To simplify – The brain is attached to the spinal cord, which supplies signals to the rest of your body. Some of these nerves exit through the upper neck and innervate the muscles and joints of your neck. In reverse, the muscles of your neck tell your nerves how they are feeling, which then gets intermingled with a few areas in the brain. When your neck gets compressed and stressed from poor position and stress, the muscles and joint tell your brain that something is not happy. Because of the way these nerves are set up, sometimes your brain gets confused, and you feel the pain in your head. (Like I said, simplified discussion!)

So what do you do?

  1. Drink a full 8 ounce glass of water, refill the cup, and plan to drink another one over the the next hour or so. Hydration will make sure the joints and muscles in your neck can heal and move freely.
  2. Get up, walk away from the computer, and focus your eyes on things over 20 feet away.
  3. MOVE your neck. Stretch it, roll it and do some distraction.
  4. Get your neck checked by a chiropractor. We specialize in normalizing movement into the joints. If you’re noticing an increased frequency of headaches, lets make sure its not something more serious and then get that neck moving better!

As always, Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed learning and don’t hesitate to call if you have any questions or schedule an appointment here!

 

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‘Tis the season ~ For a Sore Throat

sore throatFor stress, less sunlight, closer contact with people.  Also known as prime viral replication conditions.  I’ve already seen a handful of people suffering from Viral Pharyngitis which is the most common cause of a sore throat.  I’m sure a few of you reading this have already had this experience.

 

This years viral pharyngitis seems to start fairly similar to most years, likewise so are sore throat occurrences. First you get “Warning mode” which can best be described as a fatigued, heavy body feeling. It is your body letting you know something might be coming! Up next is what I like to call, “Protection mode.” Protection mode is when your body activates its protective mechanisms. You get a bit of a fever and your mucous membranes begin producing as fast and as furious as they can. Your body turns its focus to stopping the infection via white blood cell production. This is essentially your body trying to denature the virus with heat and to keep any viruses from entering through the mucous membranes. Up next is the “Healing mode.” At this point your body starts to reverse the damage and clear out any leftover, now dead viruses.

 

Oh, and did I mention the very, very sore throat most patients are experiencing

What to Do for a Sore Throat

So now you’ve let your defenses down, and you’re starting to feel “Warning mode.” What should you do?

First – stop and slow down. Plan on needing a few extra hours each day to recover and relax.

 brothSecond – begin taking your favorite immune support supplements. Personally, I immediately start taking Standard Process Congaplex. Then I make sure I plan to get “pho” from the nearest vietnamese restaurant. Its made with Bone Broth! (Super delicious!)

 

Third – Begin to gargle. One of the best things to help reduce the pain of a sore throat is to do a warm salt water gargle followed by a warm baking soda water gargle. The salt makes it feel better, and the rotating between salt and baking soda shocks the viruses by taking them from a very acidic to a very basic solution.

 

Fourth – Water, Water, Water! Your body is going to be trying to flush out the virus from your mucous, and mucous requires a lot of liquid! I suggest rotating between cold water and then room temperature or warm water, perhaps with a little raw honey in the water.

 

gargleLastly – If you’re not getting better, or you’re suffering, go to your primary care provider! Most viruses in an otherwise healthy individual will run their course in about a week. If you don’t feel like you’re getting better, or you’re feeling your symptoms with more intensity, please don’t hesitate to call your doctor.

 

Oh and get adjusted! Some of the best research out there shows that chiropractic adjustments help give your immune system a boost and therefore fight against a sore throat!

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Skeptic

rocktape skeptic

I think that being a skeptic is essential when you work in complementary medicine. Not because I believe that a lot of treatments aren’t real, nor do I believe that anyone is trying to lie to us. I also realize that the hard science isn’t always there to back up a product, which is why I need to see a product in action before I jump in.

Kinesiotape is a product that has a distinct moment of clarity for me where I went from being a skeptic, to being a believer.

While I was in chiropractic school, we had the opportunity to volunteer to help with a Susan G. Komen 3 day for the Cure event. We weren’t signing up to walk 60 miles in 3 days. Instead we were signing up to work in a medical tent for 3 days to help those walking get through. Our goal was to put our musculoskeletal diagnosing and treatment skills to use to help the walkers complete their goal.

rocktape skeptic

 

My roommate Allison Chmielewski and I on Day 3!
For this event, someone had donated hundreds of dollars worth of bright pink kinesiotape for us to use and as far as the medical tents went, we were the only group of volunteers that knew how to use it. And let me tell you, use it we did! If you came in with hip pain, or knee pain, or low back pain, or foot pain, we did our evaluation, some soft tissue work, and then we would put some tape on it based on findings, and send the walker on their way. Up until this point, I had never had an amazing experience with the tape. I understood the concept, I was able to utilize the techniques and I felt competent in using it as a treatment option, but part of me was still like, “Meh, its just a placebo!” (which btw, there is also a time and place for placebos, but I’m sure I’ll get into that in the future)

So lets make a 3 day long story short. People who were taped were coming back to the tent after say walking another 20 miles and were ecstatic! Perhaps their pain wasn’t 100% cured, but they were able to get through another 20 miles with less pain and more ease. And what was crazier, is that the repeatedly said things like, “As soon as I took the tape off, I could feel the ache coming back, so can you tape me again!” I was slowly becoming less of a skeptic…

I will admit, by the last day, we were a raggedy bunch of chiropractic students and doctors. We had been tested on levels that were new to us. Not only was there non-stop patients for us, but we were also on our feet running around on concrete and then sleeping outside on cots for the weekend. When Day 3 came around, I came down with one of the worst cases of Plantar Fascitis I have EVER had! It honestly felt like I was walking on burning shards of glass. We were packing up our tents and loading up the truck with our tables and equipment and I was hobbling around like the ground was lava. It was intense.

Fortunately, my friend Chase was smart enough to tell me to sit down. He was going to put Kinesiotape on my feet. (I mean DUH! I had just taped up approximately 1 million people with plantar fascitis, you would think I would have thought of it for myself!)

I have to tell you, and this is not an exaggeration… I went from feeling like the earth was on fire beneath me, to feeling like someone had just placed cool, memory foam pillows underneath my feet. It was incredible. That was my moment. That was my “Oh my goodness, this tape is incredible!!!!” moment.

To end the weekend, we were scheduled to be part of the finish line crew. We were there when hundreds of people who had just walked 60 miles crossed the finish line! Many were walking in memory of a lost loved one, and some were walking in triumph of having beaten their disease into remission. The celebrations were some of the most emotional celebrations I have ever been a part of. What was even more incredible, is that as we were standing there cheering and yelling, a lot of the walkers would pick out the chiropractor that helped them and then come over and thank us.

It was a humbling and truly life changing experience. But I want you to know that when I give you a treatment option, and you look at me and go, “Does it really work, doc?” I understand your skepticism, and yes, I hope it really works.

 

After Chase Taped my feet, I taped his!

 

The whole crew of chiropractors and students!

 

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Ogden Elite Football Camps

physical activity

So I’ll let you in on a little secret… I LOVE football!! I love watching it and I love treating the young athletes! (I do not particularly like playing it as I don’t like being sore…lol) I watch my Buffalo Bills play every week like its a religion and I’m equally as obsessied with my Fantasy Football team!

Long story short – one connection led to another and here I am, telling you about my
sponsoring the Ogden Elite Football Camps.
Upon meeting Marques Ogden, I felt like he was a man who was teaching his students not only the best and safest ways to play football, but also teaching these young men to be dedicated, responsible adults.

I can’t wait to get to the first camp and meet the players and their parents, and help them in their journey! Whether it’s just a love of the sport and playing while they’re young, or if their goal is to make it to the NFL and become a pro player like Marques!

At the end of the day, Football is a tough sport. It’s tough on the body, and its tough on the emotions. It can be exhausting an rewarding, and each player needs to learn to take care of themselves.
Surrounding themselves with a true health care, preventative team is the most efficient way to do that!

And let’s not forget the Mom’s and Dad’s running around, taking them from practice to practice, and from stop to stop. Spending all that time in the car and in bleachers, you might need a little support as well. I’ll be here for you, too!

Anyways, we will keep you posted on the happenings, and we hope to see all your young football players reach their goals safe and healthy!