EPISODE SUMMARY
Guest: Dianne Madison
Dianne’s father is Dr. William G. Blair, the founder of the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Technique. Not only did he see as many patients every day as he could, but he would also stay at night studying x-rays, and doing research. He even went to a medical museum to see a spine and wrote a book about that.
Dianne says about her Dad, “ He was such a good person, and he worked so hard. In fact, he practically worked himself to death because he was such an intelligent man and just studied, and studied, and studied because he wanted to help people. He had asthma from day one, and he wanted to help them, and he knew that this did.”
Dianne’s mother, Dottie, introduced him to an upper cervical chiropractor. She not only got him interested in it, but she took him to an upper cervical doctor that adjusted him, and it helped pull him out of an asthma attack.
Her mother always wanted a family member present at the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Society Annual Convention. The Blair Society was founded after her father, Dr. Blair, died in order to make sure that there was continuity and quality over the Blair Technique that he started and developed and taught and researched, making sure it continued in that form and didn't just disappear. Dianne’s Mother, Dottie Blair, Dr. E.A. Addington, and Dr. R. W. Muncy founded the Blair Society.
Her own health journey: She got an adjustment pretty early when she was really young. Probably the day after she was born. She was checked very often. She has always had really good health. She had adult-onset asthma, which has always been under control because of being in alignment. She is now 67 and has stayed in alignment for the last five years or longer.
Most people don't realize how much upper cervical care helps because when you first get under chiropractic care, and you've got issues, it took years for those issues to get where they’re at. It's going to take some time to correct itself. When you get adjusted, the nerve supply is able to go freely to your body, and that's how the body heals itself. It's very important. The neck is where it all starts.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Dianne, it's about time for getting to tell your story. I am so excited to have you here today.
Well, thank you for having me.
Thank you for coming. Dianne is Dianne Madison right now?
Yes.
Your maiden name?
Blair!
Yes, you are.
My father is Dr. William G. Blair.
Yes. Isn't that amazing? Dianne actually is-- I want to tell our listener, I feel like we're kindred spirits. I feel like we don't see each other that often, but when we do, we really connect, and I feel like even the first time we really connected.
Yes, I do too.
I really feel like Dianne is a true friend and our hearts beat for a lot of the same things.
That's true.
I'm really excited to have you here. I am going out of order from what I had planned, but I want to tell the story of how we first met. I think I actually met you briefly and just shook your hand at a conference in Las Vegas one time.
Probably.
You just said, "I'm Dr. Blair's daughter," and I thought, "Whoa, that's amazing. I got to shake hands with Dr. Blair's daughter." I never really expected necessarily to get to know you like I have, but I'm really happy I have. A few years later, it must have been in the summer of 2017, my husband and I went on a road trip from California to Lubbock, Texas because he had been recruited pretty hard to come and take over the original Blair Clinic. We really didn't want to move and uproot our family, but he told me one day we have to go on a road trip and just consider it, and see what comes of it. We came with intention of saying no. As a part of that weekend, we met with you, Dianne, and your son, Cameron?
Yes.
We met over dinner, and things just started to come together for me during that conversation. You asked a lot of excellent questions. You asked our story. You told a little bit about your story, and when it really connected for me was when you said some of the things that you had prayed for for the Blair Clinic. The things, they were very specific things, and all the things that you said were things that were really important values for me. From that time on, I felt our hearts are in the same place.
Oh yes.
Do you remember that?
Yes, I do.
Do you happen to remember what some of those things were that you prayed for?
I just remember I was praying because I knew Dr. Addison couldn't continue much longer, and I did not want my dad's work to just stop here in Lubbock since this is where it was established. I just prayed for someone to come, and you guys came, and I could tell you were perfect when I first met you.
Well, thank you. Those are big words. We're not perfect, but we definitely care about the same things that you care for, and the more I've been here and seeing your father's notes and things that he wrote, they're the exact same values that we carry on today. It's really amazing. It was just a natural continuation. We've talked about your dad, so why don't you tell us a little bit about growing up, and what it was like with your mom and dad, and what your childhood was like.
Well, to start out, it's humorous because I was the second child and they wanted a boy. Well, I wasn't a boy. He named me Will Lynn, which was for William if I was going to be William George Jr. Anyway, because I wasn't a boy though, we became close. We used to be what we call football buddies.
Wow.
From a very young age, we watched, I remember, the Pittsburgh Steelers, The Steel Curtain. The Dallas Cowboys came on later. Anyway, we were really close football buddies while my sister didn't care as much usually. Then another thing that I remember so much is every night, daddy would come in to tell us good night, or even after I think we'd gone to sleep, he never would let us sleep on our stomach. Sleeping on your stomach and turning your head is not good for your neck.
That is a common opinion among chiropractors.
It is, and to this day I don't sleep on my stomach. He used to--
He trained you.
He trained me, and I don't. I never have, I can't. It's crazy.
The football story puzzles me a tiny bit just because of what football does to people's neck, so I find it interesting that he liked it, because when I watch football, all I say is, "Ouch. Oh, they're going to hurt," and, "There goes the neck."
I think he probably said that a few times, "Oh, he lost his adjustment." Of course, I was so young, I don't really-- He loved football. I don't know why, but he did.
Are there any other memories or stories that you want to share about him?
We know how much he studied to learn all of this.
Well, you and I do, but maybe the person listening to our conversation probably doesn't know.
Maybe he didn't.
Why don't you describe that?
Not only did he see as many patients every day as he could, he would stay at night studying x-rays, doing everything he could. He even went to a medical museum to see a spine. He had a spine that showed a subluxation.
He actually wrote a book about that.
Yes, he did.
We have those books here, so if any of our listeners are interested in that book, I'll put in the show notes how you can contact me and get a copy of that book.
That would be good. Well, it was frustrating to my sister and I though. Because he was so intense in this, sometimes my mother would have like a sorority meeting or something she wanted to go to, and daddy wanted his dinner served to him. He didn't want to get it out of an oven. My sister and I, one of us had to stay home-
Oh wow.
When he got home to make sure we served his dinner. Sometimes we were wanting to go to a basketball game or something, but that was just the way it went. We had to take turns, but we did it.
That's dedication. I guess those were different times.
Yes, but he was such a good person, and he worked so hard. In fact, he practically worked himself to death because he was such an intelligent man, and just studied, and studied, and studied because he wanted to help people. He had asthma from day one and he wanted to help them, and he knew that this did.
Tying back to the asthma and your good night story, before we pressed record, you told me a really sweet story about the good night times and also how that tied into his asthma.
He was always hugging us and telling us he loved us. Every time we turned around, he'd say I love you. He told me once, he said, "I want you girls to know that my mother thought I was a burden because of my asthma." He said, "I was born with asthma and she never really showed me much love."
Oh.
He said, "I want you girls to know that you're loved." Of course, I think that did help him want to study more because of how bad his asthma is, and he didn't want going to doctors to do that. My mother introduced him to a chiropractor, an upper cervical chiropractor.
I would love to hear that story, but before we do that, I would like to just draw our attention to how that story, first of all, breaks my heart that he would feel that way, but also, how he used that pain that he had in his own childhood as a motivation to show more love to his children, and also how that was a motivation for him to be a caring doctor as well.
Oh yes, for sure.
It was personal to him.
It was very personal. Very.
You were going to move on and tell us about your mother.
My mom, she was such a wonderful sweet lady. Always--
Tell us first of all what her name was, for those who don't know.
Okay. Her name was Beatrice Anetta Blair.
She didn't go by that though?
No. She went by Dotty.
Dotty, that's right.
The story behind that is when she had several moles on her face or something when we were babies. We messed with them, so she had them removed, but that's why they called her Dotty because she had several.
Oh, I didn't know that.
She called them beauty marks.
Great point of view. I will just point out, since this is audio, as soon as we mentioned your mother, your eyes and your face lit up like sparks.
She and I were so close. She was just an awesome person.
Tell us a little bit about stories that you want to tell. Tell us about your relationship with her or things that you remember about her, but also a little bit about the role that she played in the clinic.
When it came to dad, of course, this also goes back in those days, she waited on him handing foot. She made sure-- She even ironed his handkerchiefs. How it got started is she--
Behind every successful man, there's a great woman.
A great woman, yes. She not only got him interested in-- because she took him to an upper cervical doctor that adjusted him and it helped him pull him out of an asthma attack. That's how I originally realized.
Okay. When was this?
Now, this was when they were in El Paso before they were married, I believe.
I just want-- I don't know, it's not important that we know the exact year, but just so our listeners get a sense that what you're saying is the origin story of how the Blair technique started, how it came to be that your dad went into chiropractic because he wasn't a chiropractor at the time. Right?
Right. He wasn't. No. He was having. They had met. He'd moved to El Paso because for the dry climate, for his asthma. That's how he met my mom. Then he had some asthma attacks around her and she's the one-- She introduced him to this upper cervical doctor, or he adjusted the neck. He was having an asthma attack and she took him and he got adjusted and it helped him. From then--
Excellent.
Yes. He could tell he got relief. They decided to move to Lubbock for the dry climate too. I don't really know what brought him to Lubbock. [laughs]
That's okay.
The climate was part of it. Of course, it ended up being a little hard on him because cotton became such a big thing and that affected his asthma.
Yes, that is a big thing in Lubbock. Can you paint a little picture of your mother? What was she like and what are some of your best memories of her?
She was just a sweet, sweet lady at church. She was always greeter. I called her my little social butterfly because she just was always sweet. She was not only sweet to everybody she was around, but she was a good mother. She was nice to us. Sure, sometimes she had to get rough, but she basically was just a good person and wanted to do the right thing and wanted to help people. She was daddy's receptionist for several years because she wanted to be part of it. The patients loved her.
If she's a people person and she cares, people feel that.
Oh, yes. They could tell. Between her and dad, they knew.
She was still able to be a good mother to you.
Yes.
That is a lot.
Exactly. Now, I admit I wasn't athlete or anything, so she didn't have to go to games or anything for me, but she was there for whatever I needed her for. I was a dancer and she took jazz dancing.
That's fun.
Anyway, she was just a Wonderful mom.
Is there anything else you want us to know about your mother?
Main thing is, of course, like I said, she and I were like best friends towards the end and she had always wanted a family member to be at the conferences.
Let's talk about what the conference is, what conference we're talking about. A lot of our listeners will not know about the conference.
What the conference is.
You are talking about the Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractic Society Annual Convention. Before we actually talk about the conference, we should say a little bit about what the Blair Society is. It was founded after your father died, Dr. Blair, to continue and make sure that there was quality over the work. That the Blair technique that he started and developed and taught and did research on, continued in that form and didn't just disappear. When your father, Dr. Blair, died, your mother and Dr. Addington and--
Dr. Muncy, I believe.
Dr. Muncy. That's right. Dr. Muncy was your father's best friend, right?
Yes, he was.
The three of them founded the Blair Society. I actually think I went to a conference that she went to in Chicago. I must have met her, but I don't remember it. I had a baby at the time, so I probably was not all there.
Because she was at every conference for years before I even started attending.
She was at every conference until when?
Actually she went until the year before she passed away.
When was that?
That was in 2008. September, 2008.
September.
Debbie and I went to the conference in Dallas, Texas in October after she passed.
You made a promise to her or she made a request from you? Or tell us a little bit about what you remember about that.
She just said that she wanted-- Because these doctors were working so hard to keep our dad's work going and teaching it correctly and expanding more and more over the United States, she wanted us to let them know we appreciate it. She wanted us to try, if at all possible, to have a family member there, whether it be my sister or one of our children, her grandchildren. I have pretty much done that. We have all these years. We've had a few issues, but we're there.
That's excellent.
We love seeing these doctors and all the new ones coming in.
Did you ever consider becoming a Blair upper cervical doctor?
See, that's where it's funny. I don't mean to cut myself down, but I don't think I was smart enough to do that. My sister, I think, probably could have, but, no, I just didn't. Daddy sent me to the bank and I've been there now the rest of my life for 46 years.
You worked at the bank.
Daddy's the one that sent me there, and they hired me because he was such a good customer. [laughs]
That's fun. Something that I wanted to grab a hold of a little bit. You have this commitment to your dad's work and to the conference and to doctors who do it. What is it about you that keeps you committed and have that kind of respect?
Well, my dad, he worked so hard and I respected him so much, and his work, it helps. It helps people.
It really does work.
I know up in heaven, if there's a way for them to know, he is very happy of what we're doing. My goal in life is to keep teaching more people. It's just in my heart that I've just got to do it.
I feel like that's the purpose of this show as well. I got my health back and my life back because of your dad's work. That was many years after he had passed away. The truth is, I got my life back because someone told me about it. That's why I'm doing this. If you're listening, there are excellent doctors out there that are there for you.
It does. It really works.
Tell us a little bit about your own health journey as a child and growing up in this upper cervical famous chiropractic family. Just whatever you want to share
Basically, now, I know, I don't know exactly when, but I understand I got an adjustment pretty early when I was real young. He checked me, I think, the day after I was born.
Probably. I would imagine so.
I got checked, Debbie and I were in the office getting checked every week. Well, not, maybe not every week, but very often. I've always had really good health. My sister had some issues that he helped her come through. I'll let her-
We'll have her on the show too.
-share those. I've always been. Now, I did have adult-onset asthma come when I turned 45, but asthma runs in our family.
That is the reason that that brought him into chiropractic.
Exactly. That's why I'm a diehard, want to always have chiropractic care because it has. My asthma is totally under control, and it's-
That's good.
-chiropractic's what's done it. Other than that, my health has actually been exceptional.
You're not as young as you once were.
No.
Tell us about these days and your chiropractic journey these days. What happens to you these days with chiropractic?
I'm 67 years old now. I sometimes get a little tired. I've stayed in adjustment. I haven't had to have an adjustment for several years. I want to say like five years, maybe longer than that.
We have been here four and a half years.
Okay, so it's been longer.
Have you been adjusted by this current doctor?
No. It's been Dr. Elder-- I was in a car accident back-
Interviewer: Oh, no.
-years ago, a minor one, but that's when I got my last adjustment.
:Minor car accidents are not minor when it comes to neck injuries.
Exactly.
That's a topic of another show. [laughs]
For sure. Dr. Elder would love to adjust me, but he has--
He loves not having to even more.
I'm so healthy. I even had to have a surgery, a hernia surgery. I figured that would knock me out of adjustment. It didn't. It's because I've been under adjustment, I mean, been-
In alignment.
-in alignment for so long that my body holds it.
That's the neat thing about what your dad discovered. Maintenance doesn't mean that you always have to go and get something done all the time. The recommendation is get regular checkups, but it's holding the alignment in place and not needing an adjustment that is good for us. It's a different approach.
It is. Most people, they don't realize, because when you first get under chiropractic care and you've got issues, it took years for those issues to get where you're at. It's going to take some time to correct itself.
It takes some time. The good news is it doesn't take near as long as it took to get bad in the first place.
Right. Then you'll get where you're like me, you don't have to be adjusted very often, so you just get checked.
That's great. This podcast is called What Pain in the Neck. From your understanding of the neck, what's so special about the neck?
Well, the neck, all the nerves flow through the neck. When you're in adjustment, it cuts off nerve supply to some part of your body.
When you're out of alignment.
When you get adjusted, the nerve supply is able to go freely to your body and that's how the body heals itself. It's very important. The neck is where it all starts.
The body knows what to do.
Yes, exactly.
It just needs to be able to do it freely. Well said. Okay, Dianne. Is there one thing or a couple of things that you just wish everybody would understand or would remember from this?
I just hope that they realize that they should give it a chance. If they had issues. it is so important to have the neck in alignment and having that nerve supply, because the body can heal itself if it's got the nerve supply. That's what I want to stress to people. If they will just go see. If they need an adjustment, they're going to see results, some results immediately, I mean, usually. They just need to know how important it is for you to be in adjustment and to have that nerve supply going throughout your body.
You're a living example of that. I don't know how many other people your age that have experienced that from day one. I really do wish we had audio. We do have audio. I mean, video because I just can't describe enough how much you sparkle, how much life and energy you have in you.
Well, thank you. Thank you. I look a lot like my mother.
I wish I could have spent more time with her, but--
I wish you could have. You would've loved her.
I am sure I would because I love your family and I love you. Dianne, is there anything else you would like to say?
My main thing I would like to say is I am so grateful for you and Dr. Elder.
I didn't see that coming.
God did, he answered my prayers. He brought, and y'all uprooted your whole family.
We did.
Came to Lubbock, Texas. Most people don't even-- a lot of them don't even know where Lubbock, Texas is.
I certainly didn't.
You, you talk about I'm glowing. You are. You become in the community. You've brought in a lot of patience. You've helped share the word because you, yourself, chiropractic did so much for you.
It gave me my life back. I feel like I've got this fire in me, like it's my purpose to share the story. I got my life back out of just the depths of suffering, A, because your dad did all this hard work. You as his family supported him, his best friend, Dr. Muncy, who was the doctor I started with, worked with Dr. Blair and had the same commitment. Thirdly, somebody told me about it. I had to know about before I could start. It had been years and years and years so I can't check anyone. I don't know how to analyze and adjust to, but I sure know how to explain it.
You sure do.
I feel like that is my purpose.
You have backed Gordon. You introduced Gordon. He is so awesome. He learned from the best, from dad's best friend, Dr. Muncy. Dr. Elder is so intelligent. He puts his heart and soul into this, I believe.
I see the same type of caring in him as you're describing in your mom and dad.
Yes, I feel that way.
Do you have a favorite quote or life verse that you like to live by?
This is a silly one because it has nothing to do with chiropractic.
Oh yes, that's great.
My daughter still tells me to this day, I always told her, treat people the way you would want to be treated. If you're thinking about doing something, stop and think, how would I feel if that was done to me? If you wouldn't feel good, don't do it. She says to this day, she thinks about that before she says something ugly to somebody.
That is really good. I actually have a favorite quote that I had picked out for this episode. That is something your dad said.
Oh, what was it?
Actually, it's coming from a brochure that he had printed and handed to people in marketing for the Blair Clinic. It dates back to, I think, 1951.
Wow, that was before I was born.
It's a quote that motivates me so much. I have it on my wall in my office. It says, "Sick people need friends, friends who want to see to it that you get well."
That is good.
That is so good.
That sounds lucky.