My Story 8

From reading the paper, and researching more about how the ankle and foot worked and the importance of posture, I realised that I needed to get hold of a pair of custom made orthotics in the hope that they would finally rid me of my pain and suffering.

I sent an email to the British Chiropractic Association asking if they had heard of the research and whether the orthotics described in the paper were available in the UK. They hadn't heard of it, but forwarded my email to both British Chiropractic Colleges.

Again, fate intervened, and a couple of days later, I received a reply from one of the senior lecturers; a chiropractor who was familiar with the concepts in the paper I had read.

In October 2002, I underwent an assessment. We chatted as she took my case history, reviewed the pain diagram I had drawn and undertook the physical examination. Through the assessment, it was evident that this was the first person I had met who actually understood the type and degree of pain that I had been suffering, and the consequential effects on the whole body, both physically and emotionally.

In fact, her empathic understanding has allowed me to gradually open up to myself and learn to recognise and accept the effects that this abnormality, and a total lack of understanding by others of how it actually affects the rest of the body, has had on my life to date. This experience was, and still is, a very emotional one.

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