There Are No Accidents

Hi, my name is Danielle Gray and I am an Upper Cervical Chiropractor. 10 years ago, I never would have thought that would be an introduction that I would use. For many years I was happily employed as a software consultant living all over the world.

I’m an active outdoorsy person and eventually settled in San Diego, CA. Taking advantage of the climate, I spent a lot of time surfing, skiing and playing golf. That part of my lifestyle abruptly came to an end when I was surfing. I took a big wave and fell off my surfboard. The point of the board hit me in the small of my back and knocked the feeling out of my legs. I had trouble getting out of the water. While the sensation in my legs returned relatively quickly, within a few days I started to experience a disturbing numbness and tingling in my left pinky that rapidly progressed along the entire left side of my body. Intense neck pain and frequent headaches soon followed.

Every aspect of my life was affected, but the problem was, most people didn't know. If you looked at me, you would never know anything was wrong. I tried not to complain much, but any kind of activity that involved well...activity, was extremely problematic. I spent two years in a chronic state of pain, going from test to test - from MRIs to CAT scans with no answers or treatments that worked. My doctors told me that I’d “just have to learn to live with the pain.” I don’t know about you, but this was unacceptable to me. Every aspect of my life was impacted by this injury and I missed my old “healthy self.” I missed living my life.

Then everything changed.

A good friend, who happens to be a medical doctor, suggested I try seeing a chiropractor. To say that I was skeptical would be an understatement. I had no idea what chiropractic really was, I just thought it wasn't for me. My friend asked me a very simple question, "what else are you going to do?" And, so I gave it a try. I was shocked that I felt immediate relief. Within two weeks of beginning treatment, my symptoms were gone. Let me repeat that - within two weeks, the symptoms that had plagued me for over two years, caused me intense pain and complete reduction of all of my activities were GONE!

I was thrilled. I was also very curious. How did this work? Why hadn’t my primary care physicians suggested chiropractic care as a treatment option...ever? As I learned more about chiropractic care I became intrigued by the field. I have always loved helping people and and saw this as an opportunity to “pass it on.” I felt a responsibility to start educating others about the benefits that I received and wanted to help others that have suffered. With that, I made the decision to leave the software consulting world and embarked on a journey to be a chiropractor.

Through my personal experience, I also learned the importance of educating the general public. Too often, I think people have the wrong assumptions about chiropractors. I know I did. Luckily, my friend thought enough of me to all but drag me to his doctor. I got my life back and so much more.

I’m excited about the prospect of blogging here and look forward to interacting with the Patch community. In this blog, I’ll share about current issues relating to chronic pain and the reduction thereof, optimal health and wellness issues. I’ll look forward to telling you more about my specialty, Upper Cervical Specific Chiropractic Care, which focuses on removing nerve irritation to restore communication between the brain and the body. It’s different from general chiropractic care, as it involves only adjusting the top two bones in the neck. Intrigued? I was, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. In the meantime, if you have any questions or topics that you would like to see me address, please let me know in the comments section below; this blog is for you, the reader, and I’d love to answer any questions that might be out there.

If you’re more interested in learning about my practice, please visit my website, check out my facebook page, email (drgray@restorechiropractic.com) or call me at 610-341-9300 anytime.

Thank you for reading this, I'll be in touch soon!