EPISODE SUMMARY
GUEST: Beth Lundby, DC.
Beth Lundby,DC, is a Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractor and Blair Advanced instructor located in Bismarck North Dakota.
In this vulnerable yet hopeful and inspirational episode, she tells her background story of choosing to be a Doctor of Chiropractic and ultimately specializing in the neck with the Blair Technique.
She talks about the support and love of her husband, John, and the joys and challenges of being a mother and a doctor and finding the balance to excel at both. She is honest about her own struggle with postpartum depression. She encourages every pregnant woman to educate themselves on this condition and to reach out and seek help.
Dr. Lundby also talks about her journey to becoming a teacher to other doctors and embarking on her journey toward her post-doctorate degree of becoming a Diplomate of Chiropractic in CranioCervical Junction Procedures.
You will also hear some of her favorite recovery stories from her private practice.
To contact Dr. Beth Lundby:
701-751-4848
Dr.Lundby@gmail.com
To contact Ruth, go to https://www.blairclinic.com
https://www.facebook.com/rutelin
Transcript
Welcome, welcome, welcome to what pain in the neck. I am Ruth Elder, your host. And in today's podcast episode, I am interviewing a very kind, smart doctor that actually, I have the privilege, I consider her a friend right now. And her name is Dr. Beth Lundby. Dr. Lundby, welcome.
Thank you, Ruth. Thanks for having me on.
We just met maybe around a year ago.
Probably.
Although you know, my husband much longer than that. Why don't you just kind of set up how we met?
I'm trying to think of where we specifically met.
We met in Lubbock, Texas.
Yeah. And I think I've met you before at the conferences too. But kind of in passing
We've kind of shook hands.I've known about you and you've known about me, but we really got to know each other about a year ago in Lubbock.
So in January, I came to Lubbock, Texas to co teach with Gordon, Dr. Elder, so that I could get my advanced instructor certification. So I'm starting on that path, and we did, I believe it was an intermediate Blair seminar there.
Okay, so that's actually a lot to unpack right there. So what is an advanced instructor certification?
So in the Blair technique, well, I think they changed it up a little bit. So what it used to be was you would get your proficiency certification, just stating that you knew the Blair technique. And then you could get your primary instructor certification stating that to some degree, you could teach at least the basics, and then the advanced instructor certification shows that you can teach all aspects of the Blair technique.
Yeah, so it's a lot of learning, and there's a lot of tests, and a lot of studies, and very rigorous standards, right, to do all of that?
Yes, absolutely, which it should be.
Yes, yeah, and that's actually what this conference - we're talking actually right now in Las Vegas at the annual Blair convention, and that's to a large degree what this conference is about to make sure that Blair doctors are learning the right stuff, are all on the same page. And you know, if you go to a doctor that's on the Blair technique website, that they know what they should know.
Absolutely.
Quality control, so to speak.
Yep.
Yeah. And so when you're saying you're working on being a Blair instructor, you're taking everything to the next level. Because you're not only really good at what you do. First, you have to be a doctor, and then you have to become a specialist in the Blair technique. And now you're, on top of that, being qualified to teach.
Yes, and I think knowing the Blair work and teaching the Blair work, just like anything, are two different things. You start teaching it and you're like, “oh wow,” like you said, “there's a lot to unpack here.” Yeah and it's fun co-teaching with Gordon because if I get stuck, he'll kind of pick up where I left off and then because I'm new at this, I'm constantly recording him so I can hear different ways how he teaches things.
Yes. And also I would imagine that it's even helping your skills, even though teaching and knowing it is different, but it's said in all kinds of contexts that the best way of getting really good at something is to teach it.
Absolutely. And I've noticed, - I mean, we've even had a few virtual calls in the past. And there's times where we're going over an adjustment and it's one little tiny thing I tweaked and it made all the difference in patient care when that adjustment came up. You know that I had to use that on a patient.
Yeah, it's interesting when I first started in the specialty field that is Blair Chiropractic, I worked for a Dr. Muncy who, at that time, had been in practice for over 40 years. And one of the things he said all the time was you never stop learning.
Never. Student for life.
Yeah. Alright. So we actually kind of really got ahead of ourselves. Like, I said, took you back to last year. But why don't you talk about how did you get interested in chiropractic? What, first of all, drew you into chiropractic and what's your journey been like up until this point? I know I'm asking you to talk about I don't know a bunch of years and a bunch of things. So why don't you take that where you want to take it.
I was a kid that just kind of had a lot of injuries, and I never realized till later in life that it probably started my headaches and a lot of my symptoms. So when I was…
So when you say injuries, what kind of injuries are we talking about?
Like, when I was five years old, I was “playing” basketball with my brother. I use air quotes because I wasn't really playing basketball. But I went to jump over the ball and I landed on it, and I hit my head on the driveway and I got knocked unconscious. So my dad took me to the hospital and I threw up on the way. So I had a concussion. I was five years old. So it was a big deal and I do remember little bits of it. And after that I started getting headaches. There was a couple other things like we were at an outdoor theater watching like a play and I tripped on a rock and rolled all the way down the hill.
You're laughing.
Well, it's kind of funny looking back, thinking about it. But I don't really tend to laugh at other people's injuries because you think about well what could stem from that injury? What could happen after the fact?
You know, I don't actually watch TV, but a lot of times in restaurants or airports or something like that, you see those like America's funniest videos.
They're not funny.
It's like watching people hurt themselves.
They give me anxiety. I don't like them. So soon after that, I started having headaches and I had headaches truly three, four or five times a week. My sister used to joke, “you're just lying to get out of doing dishes”. I'm like, “no, I really didn't feel good.”
Yeah, that is so heartbreaking, isn't it? It was so misunderstood. I've seen a kid in our practice, the parents were divorced and the mom brought him in. And the dad had been so against it for a long time because he said, “kids don't get headaches.”
Right. They do. I had them.
Yes, me too.
I'm proof. So then I was on all these medications and I always had side effects to everything. And then I went to a couple of medical doctors and I got a CT scan to rule out tumors and all that scary stuff. And I knew even as a kid, I don't have tumors. And then I did see a traditional chiropractor and I got some results and it kind of stuck with me. Like, that's really cool. I like that. And I'm not obviously saying all of the medical field is bad, that's clearly not the case, but I didn't have good experiences growing up.
So I knew I wanted to help people, but I knew I didn't want to do the medical field either. I wanted to do something more alternative. And when I got good results from the traditional chiropractor, I thought “this is my go to”. So then when I was in college, I kind of looked at chiropractic school and I toured Parker in Dallas, and then Palmer in Iowa. And I really just fell in love with Palmer.
So I went to Palmer and halfway through school, something just didn't resonate with me anymore. I don't know. I couldn't put my finger on it. It was just like, I'm not supposed to do this anymore. I don't know what my calling is supposed to be. And a couple of friends were like, “we're going to go to this conference or seminar in Detroit,” which is a solid 10 hour drive. And for whatever reason. I don't know if it was the car we were in or we had like six girls in the car or whatever, but I started getting this sciatic pain.
Oh, wow.
And it wouldn't go away. And it was pretty constant. And I always thought, “don't only 80 year olds get sciatic pain.” Like why do I have sciatic pain?
And you're in school to become a chiropractor.
Yes, and I was about halfway through school and…
Okay. I'm sorry to interrupt you.
That's okay.
My guess is, you were getting adjusted all the time?
I was getting adjusted three to four times a week. And it would maybe help, like at first it would help for like a couple days and then it - but then after a while it was like 30 minutes and then it was back.
So you think that it's maybe what contributed to you not wanting to do it?
Yes.
Yeah, okay. Alright, so you're in the car with sciatic pain.
Yep,, I was getting low back, hip, pelvic, all these adjustments for probably 8 to 10 months, three times a week. And then Dr. Bogle had a toggle class and we were in toggle class and Patrick Newhouse came in and he talked about the Blair technique.
He talked about, I believe he had an injury where he was playing rugby. You know, it was like one of those moments in my life So I remember a lot of details. He was playing rugby and I believe he got like - somebody kind of picked him up and dropped him on his head. And he ended up after so long getting diagnosed with MS because they just couldn't understand what all these symptoms he was having were and he kind of knew, you know, “I don't have MS”.
So he got under toggle care and then he did better, but he said it brought him to 80 percent but not 100 percent and then he got his first Blair adjustment and he was just like, “Oh my gosh, this is it.”
Okay. So toggle is also another form of Upper cervical, but maybe kind of an earlier iteration. It's not quite as precise, but still gentle and effective.
Yep. So then he showed a video of Dr. Drew Hall and Drew's pretty - he's very passionate about what he does and he was a little bit off color, if you will. And so I think a lot of people felt a little bit offended in our class, but it made me go, “This guys super passionate. Why is he so passionate? What is this?” And I talked to Patrick after class and it just made sense to me. I was like, “this is gonna get rid of my sciatic pain.” So I went into the outpatient clinic because at the time you couldn't get Blair care in the student clinic and Dr. Hubbard, Todd Hubbard, gave me my first Blair adjustment and it was like two or three days later. I mean, I felt a shift right away, I was like, something happened.
You felt something shift in your hip from getting…
Just kind of everywhere, like my whole body and kind of like that flush people talk about or the fluid, you know, coming out of the brain. And then, you know a couple days later, my sciatic pain was gone, and it was like gone for weeks and weeks and I thought he adjusted “my neck and this pain in my butt and down my leg is gone What happened?”
So now that you're a doctor what did happen?
So the head sits on top of the top neck bone and when the neck bone goes out of place the head goes with it. The eyes need to be parallel with the horizon, so in order to get the eyes parallel, the spine will twist, turn, and rotate. So then it shifts the shoulder, it shifts the hip to get the head level, but then you're compensating all the way down the spine.
So basically what happened was when Dr. Hubbard gave me my first Upper Cervical Blair adjustment, he adjusted the left side of my neck because that was what he found on x-ray, and everything all the way down the spine shifted like a domino effect, and it took the pressure off of all of those nerves and my sciatic pain went away.
And no more adjustments three times a week?
No. No it was amazing. And I don't remember how long I held the first adjustment. I want to say it was maybe like six weeks. And of course there were periods of time where it would come back and it would bother me. And that didn't always mean that my neck was out again, but it was just all part of the healing process.
So the healing process. It's kind of an up and down squiggly line, but overall it should be going up and you should be getting better.
Yeah.
That's interesting. So from that point on, how was your process of getting about learning the Blair technique yourself?
So then I dove in hard. I was like all in. I went to my first Blair conference in 2008 in Dallas. There was probably only maybe 60 or 70, maybe 80, somewhere around that number of people there. And I just asked all the questions to all the people, “why don't you do this?” “And what's this?”
Yeah, I could see you doing that.
Yeah! I was really curious about everything. And I came back and I remember calling my parents, and well, my husband obviously, but like I called my parents and I'm like, “This is what I'm doing.” I mean, I think I talked to them for two and a half hours. I was so excited. And what's kind of interesting about that is my grandpa had just had a stroke and my parents live in Northwest Minnesota. So the closest Blair chiropractor is in Minneapolis. It was Dr. Hilpsch, John Hilpsch. And it was like, I was so passionate. And you know how you just It's just, you sense that vibe from somebody and you're like, “Oh my gosh, I have goosebumps. I want to do this.” And my mom said, “we're bringing dad to Minneapolis.”
Well, it's about a five and a half hour drive for my parents. And for some silly reason, I thought, “Oh my gosh, well, what if grandpa doesn't do well? What if this?” And I talked to Jackie and Patrick Newhouse again, and they're like, “what are you talking about? Like your grandpa's only going to do better.” So grandpa was a very ornery man and he had his walker and he was an old farmer and he didn't want to go. My mom kind of had to convince him and he got his first adjustment and I won't say the things he said after, but you know, “that didn't do anything” and he's swearing and he's all crotchety about it and ticked off. Sorry, Grandpa, but - and then afterwards they went to a small cafe close by the office and my grandpa was just groaning and complaining about how it didn't do anything. And my mom looked at him and said, “dad, you're carrying your walker.”
Like, he wasn't using his walker, he was carrying it and he's like -, and so I think he went a few more times and he kind of stopped going. He didn't get it, but my parents got it and they drove five and a half hours each way. So 11 hours total, once a week, I even thought they were crazy. I'm like, “what are you doing? What?” And so it was like, because they heard it from me and because they were also educated by Dr. Hilpisch, they are like the most vocal Upper Cervical advocates you can find. They tell everybody everywhere.
That's great. I know that when we talked in Lubbock, you were talking about when you decided to go to chiropractic school. You were, I think maybe just dating your husband at that time.
Yes.
And It involved moving and can you talk a little bit about how that process went?
Like with him and I?
I mean And it's, it takes a lot of sacrifice sometimes to do great things in life. And to help decide that you want to do something good for yourself, but also helping other people.
So my husband is ridiculously supportive. I mean, he's the best person ever. We actually knew - we actually graduated high school together.
So it's kind of strange because we weren't, we never dated in high school. And then we started dating after college and we were only dating for about 4 months. And I said -, and we were both in Minneapolis and I said, “I'm going to chiropractic school in Iowa and there's no guy's going to change my mind.” And he goes, “well, why would I, you should go, this is what you want to do.” He never pressured me to stay in Minneapolis. Like “we'll, we'll figure it out.” And I thought this is never going to work.
So we did long distance for two and a half years. And he did most of the traveling because he knew I was in school and I was doing late night labs and studying. And you know, when I'm in the car, I can't really study. So his best man on our wedding joked, “I think he went through three sets of tires driving back and forth to Iowa.”
And then we got married nine months before I finished chiropractic school. So he moved to Iowa for me. And then he moved to Washington state for me, where I worked as an associate for two years. So he moved twice for me, which is a pretty big deal.
Yeah. That’s good. So you went from Minnesota to Iowa to Washington, you just said.
Yep. So then when I got out to Washington, I associated with Jennifer Wilson. She's an offshoot of Lenarz. So I was with her for two years and it was hard because she - I don't remember how long it was, but soon after I started working there, she was pregnant. So I want to say maybe, it was probably like seven months after I started working, she had the baby. And there was some reason she had to stay away from the office longer with with like health wise.
So you got thrown into it to take over for her.
Yeah. And it was a lot. And at the same time, I mean, it's all a learning experience. So there were times where I would be looking at x-rays going, “Oh God, please help me. Do I know what I'm doing?” It's like, you know what you're doing. It's okay. You know, but it was kind of scary. And associating, you know, there's just so many different experiences. And I know that some of her patients didn't want to see me when she was gone. And it never bothered me cause I totally understood it. Most of them ended up seeing me and then some stayed with me and some went back to her when she came back, but that's just the way it goes.
Yeah. We've had that. We have two doctors at the Blair Clinic now and people kind of are used to the one they're used to. So when we were gone for two weeks, there were people who said, “Oh no, I'll wait till they get back.” And then they’d call back the next day. “Nevermind. I'm coming in.”
So you worked with someone else for two years but now you have your own clinic in North Dakota?
In Bismarck, the capital. So we moved to North Dakota in 2012. I've been open for it'll be coming up on 11 years.
It took a while to get the office up and running. There was a big oil boom in North Dakota. I couldn't find office space. It was totally bananas. And then we got the office up and running and. I just did every kind of networking you could think of. I mean, and that was one of the things I learned out in Washington. It's like…
So you found patient or you've got the word out…
Yes. I would go door to door. I would drop off business cards. I would do health fairs. I would do talks at different businesses. Oh my goodness. I had coffee with every healthcare provider in town. In fact, now it's sort of like a snowball effect where they're all sending me loads of patients, which is amazing because I swear it's like, because of all the work that I did all those years ago.
Yeah, that's great. Well, how was that for you?
It was overwhelming. But at that time we didn't have kids, so it was. Manageable, you know, like it's just all I did. And when we first moved, we lived in an apartment. I really have a hard time not - I needed to financially provide for our household. Like to me, it was really important that I do that. And because I wasn't working, I had a really hard time with it. And John said, my husband said, “Beth, you cannot go work some random job”. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but he's like, “you will lose focus and your office won't be where you want it to be. I want you to just focus on your office.” So I went a little crazy. He'd come home and I'd have these complete gourmet meals and - but because there was kind of a halt in a lot of the build out and a lot of that process because of the oil boom.
Yeah. Interesting. So are you having coffee with all these people and you haven't opened yet?
Pretty much. I was trying to get the word out.
And then you opened and people started flocking in?
Yeah. I think the biggest thing I did was I opened through Upper Cervical health centers, which they've dissolved that, but yeah
That's a franchise by that name, right?
Yep. And there's still, I don't know how many offices - I still go by Upper Cervical health centers, but we put out, - oh, I can't think of what it's called, - but a press release and I got a commercial on. Not a commercial. They did a new spot on the TV. So they did a local new spot and it was so funny because I don't like stuff like that. So everybody's like, “oh, you did so great.” And I'm like, “Oh, I was sweating underneath everything.” But I got a whole load of patience from that. And you know, it's hard because sometimes it's not like your perfect patient or whatever. But yet still, I mean, you're gaining all these experiences and you're…
So you said it's not your perfect patient Who is a perfect patient? Like if someone's listening and they're thinking, “Oh, this Blair stuff sounds interesting and I would like to go and see a Blair doctor, but maybe I'm not the perfect patient.”
Sure. I think the perfect patient is somebody that is open to knowing that this is an amazing technique and there are some rare cases where it is instant gratification, but it's not always the case
So you're saying you need to have some kind of stick-to-itiveness?
Yes. It's like we're peeling back the layers of the onion. There's all these different things. If you've had a lot of traumas and injuries, you're not going to heal overnight. It's kind of the whole, how long did it take you to get here? You're not going to get out of that overnight.
Symptom wise, yeah, you can go through that. But like that to me isn't, isn't as important because pain is pain and people don't feel good.And I think function wise, when somebody has really debilitating conditions, this is such a great technique. You have dizziness or tinnitus or migraines are such a big one, even any type of pain in the body or autoimmune disease,they can all be helped by Upper Cervical.
So you opened and you were helping people and then you had some bumps in your own heatlh.
Yeah. So, John and I were married for probably about seven, eight years, maybe, and I got pregnant with our daughter. And then it's all the thoughts. “How am I going to run a practice when I'm pregnant? How am I going to have this baby?”
Like, how do you, I've been pregnant and just in a support role. And I've wondered that so many times, “how do the women doctors do it?”
And I think this is not - when I say this, this is not tooting my own horn, when I say this, it is, do not do what I did. So we have no family nearby. I mean, they're about four or five hours away. But it's not like they're right in town. I'm kind of on an island, which I think a lot of Blair Doctors are. We're not close to a ton of people. I mean, yeah, California. Washington State, there's a lot, like it's a condensed Blair population with doctors there. But, I mean, the closest Blair doctor is 7 hours one way, 7 hours south, and 15 hours west.
Yeah, so who's going to take care of the doctor or collaborate, or anything like that. Encourage each other
Exactly. And so soon after I had Greta, our daughter, she's seven now, I just was out of my mind. Like something was wrong. And I'm almost ashamed to say as a healthcare provider, I didn't recognize it right away because it was myself. It's like, you're just worried about everybody else.
I think this is really important for people to hear.
And I’m an honest person. So I'll just say it like it is. And I tell my pregnant patients this, I try not to scare them, but I just say, I didn't like Greta when she was born. I didn't want to nurse her. I didn't want to be around her. And I didn't know that that was like a thing that happened. So I felt ashamed and I didn't want to talk about it. And I went back to work after 17 days. It was terrible. And in the very least, I worked Mondays and Wednesdays. I took Tuesdays and Thursdays off and then I'd work Friday, like, morning. Two full days and then a half day.
After three weeks.
And I would pump, I would have pumping breaks and we did have family, it's not like we threw in daycare right away or anything like that, but we did have family come for one week at a time. Well, that's exhausting. There's always somebody in your house. We don't have this big, huge house. And it was just overwhelming on every level. I'd go to work, patients would say, “Oh, Dr. Beth, do you love being a mom?” And I would just say, “yeah, let's get you checked.” Cause I just didn't want to talk about it. My husband and I were going through a tough time and I knew we had such a good marriage and I'm like, “what is happening?”
And I bet it wasn't until she was a solid 9 or 10 months old that I think I started to come out of it. And then I went, “Oh my gosh, I think I have postpartum”, and I never really did anything about it. I think I wrote kind of journal or did stuff like that and looking back on some of that stuff. It was dark. It wasn't like suicidal. I didn't want to hurt my baby and that can be a thing, too. Like I was in a really yucky place and so then, she turned a year old and at about 13 months I stopped nursing. And then four months later, I got pregnant again.
I was terrified, terrified. So I went to counseling then, like right away. I went to counseling through my whole pregnancy the second time. And then after my son was born, it was a little bit of like, you know, what they call baby blues where you're really emotional, but it did not feel the same. It wasn't this dark, like place. I felt after my daughter was born that I was in like this pity party, like nobody cares about me. Everything's about the baby. Everybody came to see the baby. And I'm like this low end of the totem pole. And I just, you know, it was not good.
So what is your advice to someone who might find themselves there? They're listening to you right now and they're thinking “Whoa.”
“That sounds like me.”
Yeah.
I mean, reach out to somebody. Reach out. And this is why I tell my pregnant patients. Again, I don't like to scare them, but I just say, I just want you to know just a tiny bit of my experience so that if you have these feelings, do not feel ashamed at least tell me. I'm not a counselor. I'm not a psychologist, but I can help you find help. So at least tell somebody that's gonna take you seriously.
Yeah, and there is help available. Really good important stuff. So thank you for being willing to share that.
Absolutely.
So you said things were different the second time. So did you do anything different coming back into being a doctor?
I still didn't take a ton of time off. I think I took about three and a half weeks, but I came back slower. So it was just much more like low key. And unfortunately there were, of course, some patients that they're just. kind of selfish and very needy. And I get that too, but I knew I had to take care of myself. So I was just much more careful. Like I said, I eased into it. And I did more part time for a lot longer than after the first. And that just really seemed to help. And you know, and then of course, babies, they feed off of us. So I think because I wasn't doing well, then she was really colicky amongst other things. I mean, she needed chiropractic care and all those things. But my son was just so much calmer because I think I was in a better place too. Cause as we know, babies are affected in utero big time. So he came out and he was pretty chill.
Okay, good. So something that I've been thinking about and wondering about is being a doctor is so all consuming in your mindset. It's like, you're all about being there for other people. And being a mom is also so all consuming, but in this totally different way. And then there's you. So, how do you handle that?
I might be of a different mindset. A lot of women bring their babies to the office with them and that's great. Like they'll baby wear while they're adjusting, you do you. If it works for you, that's amazing. That did not work for me. So if I had the kids as babies in the office, I could not concentrate.
You couldn't be both doctor and mom.
I could not, I was not a good doctor and I was not a good mom and it was not good for anybody. So what I did was because when I first came back, I had a pumping break in the morning and I had a pretty long lunch, like three and a half hours. So my hours were pretty shortened. I would just go home over lunch cause we had a family with the baby. And I would just, I would be completely present with the baby. It's like, nothing else. I would just hold the baby and be with the baby and nurse or whatever I needed to do. And then I would go back to work for a couple hours and be doctor.
And then you’d would be fully present there.
Yeah, I would just try my, - and I mean, obviously it's still hard. There's times where you have a rough day or you haven't slept or whatever. And so you're like struggling through the day. For the most part, I feel like I do a good job of being really present and even now with my kids, I mean, they will be at the office a little bit, but they're, they're seven and five now. So they'll, they like to dust and clean and sometimes they help patients in the resting room. “Do you want a blanket?” You know, and they think it's fun and, and so now it's like, okay. But for the most part, it's just better if I'm just the doctor and I can just be in the office. And again, no judgment against anybody that does it a different way because we're all different. It's just how my brain works. I couldn't, I couldn't do it.
Yeah. So you have a lot on your plate and you've built a pretty good practice in North Dakota, like you said, you're very much needed because hours in every direction, you're the only specialist like that. And yet, you're going for more. So talk about that.
I have wanted to do the Upper Cervical diplomate, the DCCJP since they started it.
So that's like another degree on top of everything that you've done so far.
Like a postgraduate degree. I knew I always wanted to do it and I know there's never a perfect time, but I knew there was going to be a kind of a sweet spot and John and I had talked about you know, beforehand, years ago, it's like, I don't know if we want to put in all the time and effort and expense of it. And then it's like, then I'm pregnant. Well, that's not a good time. And then you're nursing, and I'm literally attached to the kids. That's not a good time. But I had heard stories, I think it was from like kind of through the grapevine of like, Oh, I don't know if it was Jeff Scholten or something. And he couldn't go to like his daughter's state volleyball or something like that because of the DCCJP. And I thought, well, “I don't want to do that.” So I knew that I didn't want to wait until the kids were older, but this is kind of a good age. They're more independent. They do okay for short periods of time without us, without me or without, you know, one of us. And, I have wanted to do this forever. Everybody that talks about it talks about how they're just, it's the best thing they've ever done.
Yeah, I've seen that. I've seen the growth. Yeah, so my husband, Dr. Gordon Elder, I was super proud of him and I feel like he was a fantastic doctor before. But the growth and the - it’s next level.
And I know, my mom keeps asking, “well what is it and what do you do?” And I'm like, “Mom,” so I pulled up the website and I'm like, “Mom, here, just read this.” Because, it, like you said, that's what I want, I want to grow as a doctor. Again, I hate to keep saying this, but I feel like I'm on an island in Bismarck. I don't have a lot of my colleagues nearby and this is why I come to these conferences. And so to do a program where not only are you learning this amazing material and you're bringing yourself, like you said, to the next level, but you also have this camaraderie with your colleagues, sign me up. That sounds phenomenal.
Yeah. And then you're heading off teach a teaching career on top of being a clinician.
Yeah. And that, that was something that caught me off guard because like Dr. Elder said, you know, “a lot of, some people will do the instructor certifications just because they want to say, ‘Oh yeah, I know it all.’ And then some people really want to teach it.” Well, I truly went in there just thinking, well, I just want to know that I know how to explain it and do it the right way.
So then they kind of changed it up. So in order to get the advanced instructor certification, you have to co teach so many seminars, which I think is great. And when I went the first time in Lubbock, I was so anxious because I don't really like getting up in front of people. I don't like being the center of attention and it was just a small group. So that helped too. But I thought, “well, can I look at somebody and look at how they're adjusting and change things?” And then sure enough, like, “Oh, no, you got to do this. You're, you're not putting your weight on the balls of your feet” or whatever. And it was kind of fun. So then I couldn't believe it. I'm like, “I didn't think that teaching would be fun.” And then Dr. Elder came to Bismarck and I'm like, “this is the coolest thing ever. I'm in my own office in Bismarck on my little island and people came here to like learn the Blair technique and it was just so much fun.” We had a blast.. It was just really a surprise, but I really feel like God's leading me down another path.
So do you have something that you really want to share, whether it's a story or a message or something that I haven't asked you about that you think is really important that someone can hear right now.
I have a couple of cool stories. I have a patient and she's early 50s. She was involved in multiple motor vehicle accidents, really really big whiplash trauma and she came in with cervical dystonia and myoclonus. So what that means is she can't move her neck very well. And if she does, she gets like these involuntary spasms in her neck and really her whole body. And when she came in, we started the exam and I, and, and it was the upper right quadrant of her body. So like her entire head, kind of like her sternum up like her - Yeah, her sternum up and then her entire right arm. And so I said, “can I try to touch the right side of your neck so I can palpate and feel the muscles?” She said, “yeah, you can try.” And she just went into spasms. So I thought, “okay, I don't know how I'm going to do my exam.” You know, we all have patients like that. “How am I going to do this?” You just figure it out. And I took x-rays on her and sure enough, her misalignment was on the right. And I'm like, “Oh my gosh.” Well, luckily in the Blair technique, we have things called side opposites. So I'm like, all right, we're doing a side opposite.
That is actually something I really love about the Blair technique. It's so cool. You can always find a way to do it that is safe and it doesn't hurt.
Yes. So we did a side opposite for the first couple of adjustments. And I mean, she held very well. And then one day she said, “Dr. Beth, the next time my neck is out, I want you to adjust the right side.” I bet it was one of the very few times I was nervous to adjust somebody's neck. And I said, “do you understand that I need to put my fingers on your neck, find my correct spot, put my other hand and then do the correction?” And she said, “yep.” So I'm like, “Oh God, help me, help me, help me.” And so however many weeks later her neck was out. And so we later on her left side and her right sides up and I just, I was like, “God, be with me, help this woman.” And like, she didn't even move. She had no involuntary spasms. We did the adjustment…
She had healed even though her alignment had gone back out, she had in the meantime healed enough.
She had healed enough that I was able to contact her right side, which it was, like almost unbelievable. And then she came back after that and she said something that like almost broke my heart. She said, “Dr. Beth, I haven't,” - I'm probably going to cry. She said, “I haven't been able to feel my husband kiss me for 18 years. And I could feel him, I could feel him kiss me after that adjustment.” I mean, “seriously?” And then, it's just like those moments where you're like, this is why we do what we do. This is why we need to teach, this is why we need to share those things, this technique, and bring it to more doctors so we can help more people.
And then the other story, I'll just say her first name, Mary Jo, and she's mid sixties and she has MS and she has these episodes where she can't talk at all and she had probably already been under care for a handful of months. And then I had our second baby and her daughter worked at the front desk of another chiropractor in town. So I had met her and I think we were friends on Facebook and I think my son was like three days old. I got a message from her daughter saying, “Dr. Beth, I'm so, so sorry, but my mom had an episode. She refuses to call you. She knows you're on maternity leave. And she's been on the couch. She can't talk. She can't walk. She's been there for seven days.” And I'm like, “meet me at the office in two hours. Will you hold the baby if he cries?” She's like, “yep.” So they brought her in. They brought Mary Jo in and her daughter and her husband almost had to carry her in. She had like limited function in her legs. And I'm such a bleeding heart empath. So I had to really go. Beth, you cannot adjust this patient if she doesn't need to be adjusted, you know, like you so badly want to do something, but you’re like “no”.
That is the most unique thing about Blair doctors. And I think the hardest thing is knowing when not to adjust and then if the right thing to do is to do nothing.
Right. And it is hard for us too. It's very, very hard.
Yeah. So is that what you had to do?
No, she actually was out. So I did her scan. I'm like, “Oh, that is clear pattern.” Which means she needs to be adjusted. And then she was able to lay on the table. I did her like checks and I mean, it was so, so bad. So again, we got her off the table. We practically carried her to the adjusting table. We laid her down and it was - so many times I just pray like just “God help them like work through me to help them.” So we adjusted her and I just had her lay there for longer than normal, right? Then we brought her in the restroom and I bet she rested for 45 minutes. And we had her husband with her because sometimes she would have different like muscle twitches and I didn't want anything to happen. And I was chatting with the daughter and she walked out of the resting room and said, “Dr.Beth, I feel so much better.” And I mean, it was like a miracle.
And she was walking and talking?
And talking. And it has happened on occasion since then, but never that bad, never that bad. And she didn't want to be the person to bother me because, you know, I just had a baby a few days before and I totally get that, but she had no function. She was just laying on the couch. So that was phenomenal.
Yeah. Thank you for helping people get their lives back.
That's what it's all about. It's not about us. It's about all the people that need help.
So is there anything else that we need to say?
I would just say, if you ever feel like you're on an island, put yourself out there and come to the conferences because we're a fun group and this is what it's about is the slipping and checking, figuring out what we - everybody needs to work on things. I've been in practice for - I'm coming up on 14 years and I still have a little bit.
So slipping and checking is kind of like checks and balances in politics. Right? Where doctors help each other out. And encourage each other and keep each other accountable and make sure you don't get sloppy and continue to improve.
Yes. And I truly think we're just an awesome group.
I agree. I love coming to these -. And I especially like it when you're willing to actually go in depth with me like that, and this is my attempt to like, share a little glimpse of what I've seen through the years at these conferences and in seminars and things like that.I've enjoyed it so much.
And thank you for doing this because it helps to get those stories out there too.
Yeah, and then hopefully you'll have inspired some other people to continue to excel still more just like you have.
Yeah, that would be great.