A special gift

About 8 years ago, my son was riddled with the worst cough I had ever heard. It would only occur at night when he would lie down. He was about 5 years old at the time. He played sports and was a very normal, active little boy. But those of you with children or even a puppy have some idea of the sleepless nights that come with young souls trying to make their way through the maze of their new life. They wake up for many things, and in our house, it was DJ’s cough. It went on for years. I visited everyone I could think of: specialist after specialist thought there was not a thing wrong with our little guy. I knew better, but could not figure out what I could do to help him. I myself was suffering from a terrible back injury that the doctors predicted would land me in a wheelchair by the time I was fifty. I am hard-headed and while I was searching for a cure for my son, I was running a parallel search for myself. I also visited every possible back doc that I could think of: therapist, pilates, osteopath—you name it. I wasn't getting any better, or if I was, it was pretty damn slow-moving.

One day after yet another sleepless night over the Christmas vacation, I found myself in the hands of my latest attempt at pain relief. His name was Chris. He was the stretching guru and he could possibly stretch me into a pain-free existence. So far on that morning - not so much. As he was stretching me, I yawned for what must have been the hundredth time. He was a very nice man, and he was concerned as to why I was so very tired that day. After all, it was the Christmas vacation and it was a new day and I wasn't working or anything. I explained to him that my little guy was up all night again with the dreaded cough. He offered me the name of Dr. Annette Bourdon. She is a chiropractor. She had worked with his newborn and she was great. I thought, maybe—but I was really exhausted and I had been to so many people already; I was simply running out of hope. I took the number down and stuck it in my wallet. After about two months, I ran across the little slip of paper and decided, what the heck. "What the heck! What’s one more doctor?” DJ was worth it, after all. I made the necessary appointments and went through the hoops you tend to go through when you start with a new doctor.

We got to our first adjustment appointment and as always, Dr. Bourdon made us feel so at home and comfortable. She explained that DJ's spine was subluxated. That’s a big scary word for - out of whack - not lined up. Most of us are subluxated btw. When your spine is not lined up properly, the nerves are logically getting squished. For most of us, it is probably only a tiny bit. Over time, that can be a problem. It was the case for my son DJ. Looking at DJ's graphs and x-rays, you could plainly see he had trouble in the upper back area. The nerves that come out of that particular area impact the lungs—and many other things—but for DJ, that's what was important.

Dr. Bourdon explained that she would gently adjust him. She would work over time to realign his spine. She is the kind of Chiropractor that doesn't crack the person. She uses a type of activator machine and gently aligns the spine a tiny bit each adjustment. She also explained that DJ could possibly have side effects from the adjustment within 24 hours. Things could happen like a rash might appear, he may be sleepy (I wished) or other various symptoms that were not all that intimidating. As it turned out, after his first adjustment DJ began leaking mucus from his eyes. It was very obvious that it was due to his adjustment, since it happened as we were getting him into the car at Dr. Bourdon's office. He leaked for 24 hours straight. Within a day or two, he also stopped coughing. It was a gift.

But not the only gift. After watching DJ be adjusted each week, I grew more comfortable with Dr. Bourdon and her work. Eventually, I allowed her to adjust me. She was patient and never once pushed, even though she saw me hobble in each week in terrible back pain. After several years of treatment – now once per month – I am back at the gym, enjoying life and happy to say fifty is around the corner and I have no intention of sitting down in a wheelchair anytime soon.

But my gift was not just that DJ and I got better. This is the gift that keeps on giving. We continued to visit Dr. Bourdon each week for many months, during which time we would chat and get to know one another. We became special friends. I still go for my adjustments faithfully, but now our family has a special gift of friendship that is the most precious gift of all.

Rhonda Massad

Dr. Bourdon is both extremely pleasant to visit, and prepared to take on and successfully treat the toughest cases. I know, because my condition was probably one of the worst ever.

After many years without any treatment due to ignorance and bad advice, I had ended up with severe arthritis in my neck, and all of my upper spinal discs were by then completely collapsed. Even if I wore a support collar, I could not work without frequently resting in bed, and could not drive for more than an hour or so at a time. An evening with friends was little short of torture.

Surgery would most likely have left me with little or no ability to move my head and at some risk of paralysis. Medication would have had to be strong and frequent, and therefore major side effects seemed inevitable. And so needless to say, when I found out that chiropractic care could often help with arthritis of the spine, I was very interested.

Now, when I first met with Dr. Bourdon, I had already tried chiropractic care many years before. And one problem was that the neck adjustments that I had received back then were quite a frightening experience, especially given the advanced deterioration of my upper spine. And so I was more than a little nervous about trying the same sort of treatment again.

Fortunately though, Dr. Bourdon was one of the first chiropractors to adopt modern instrumental adjustment techniques. She first explained how the instrument strictly limited each adjustment to a very short movement, and then she let me feel the effect with my hand. I felt incredibly relieved and reassured that I would not be accidentally injured, and on top of that, Dr. Bourdon's adjustments turned out to be completely comfortable and really quite pleasant.

But the next challenge came from the fact that, unlike most forms of healthcare, chiropractic adjustments, even when working very effectively, can sometimes temporarily provoke exactly the same symptoms that they will eventually eliminate. So many people abandon chiropractic care for just this reason, thinking that it must be useless or even harmful. And I came perilously close to joining them -- a decision which would have been the worst mistake of my life!

I cannot remember how she did it, but with great patience, Dr. Bourdon somehow convinced me to continue, and suggested that the best way to minimize the discomfort was to come in for adjustments as often as possible for a few weeks. This at first seemed like precisely the opposite of anything resembling good sense, but it turned out to be exactly the right advice.

And so, I will never forget the wonderful day when I woke up without pain for the first time in many years. The relief only lasted for a few hours at first, but I knew then that I was finally on a path to healing. As Dr. Bourdon had warned me, it took a few months, but the eventual result seemed like a miracle,

However, there was yet another challenge some years later, this one quite frightening in terms of what the future might hold : As I grew older, my already collapsed discs apparently started to shrink even further, and chiropractic adjustments alone were no longer able to keep me free of neck pain. But then Dr. Bourdon suggested certain dietary supplements, and these allowed the adjustments to work again. "What a relief!"

I know that my neck was terribly and permanently damaged by all those years of needless neglect. It will never be completely normal, and regular chiropractic care will always be essential for me. But now I only need one maintenance adjustment per month, just like many other chiropractic patients.

I am so happy to be able once again to work a full day, hike in the woods, drive my car as far as wish, and enjoy spending time with family and friends. And in all this, my neck is most of the time a complete "non-issue", just like a neck is supposed to be.

What more can I ask? Thank you so much Dr. Bourdon, for giving me back my life! Denis Kandel

I started going to Doctor Bourdon 2 years after my car accident in 2013, at the recommendation of several of my friends that who are under her care. At first, I completely dismissed going to a chiropractor because of bad things that I had heard. With my injuries not getting better (limited neck movements, chronic headaches, constant neck and back pains, not able to sleep), my girlfriend booked an appointment for both of us. While still being skeptical, I decided to give it a chance. Doctor Bourdon was very pleasant and professional in the way she did her examination and explained what she could do for me.

After several months of treatments, I finally started seeing good results, something that I did not get from physiotherapy, acupuncture, ergo therapy and osteopathic care. Me being me, I was still skeptical because I wasn't sure if the treatments made me better or if I just got better with time. Those doubts were laid to rest when I walked in to an appointment with Doctor Bourdon hunched over because of lower back pains and walked out straight. At that point, I was fully sold. After one year of treatments, we compared the x-rays, and what a difference, compared to the previous year!

Since then, I been involved in another car accident, and I am glad to have Doctor Bourdon in my life, because she is helping me to recover--again. So, would I recommend her? That's a big resounding, YES! My wife and I trust Doctor Bourdon so much that our infant daughter is also under her care and so far, she is hitting all her milestones early.

Steve J