Collan Koeppen D.C.
My Story:
I was a rambunctious child, racking up injuries from the school of hard knocks. I did every crazy thing imaginable such as, flying off a bicycle to falling out of trees and tumbling down the stairs. A car ran me over as a child, but I did not sustain major trauma! We wrestled and fought daily for fun and played all of the contact sports. Like most kids, I quickly bounced back from these mild injuries.
At 8 years old, I almost broke my neck while playing in a football game. While playing against bigger and older players, the entire team ran over me like a scrum in rugby. I was crumpled up into a tiny ball. My neck was all the way down to my lower back and I heard a crack. My head was stuck to the side for over a week with my ear nearly touching the shoulder. The medical doctor said I should be ok because I had “no nerve damage”. He instructed me to wait it out, saying my head would eventually go back to the middle. Well, it never did. The following school year my principal commented on how much nicer I had been the year before and asked me, “What happened?” I had no idea that anything was wrong. But over time I would find out the hard way. The injury resulted in numerous developmental problems. The mental and emotional side of my health was extremely chaotic and dark.
For years I suffered from headaches, muscle spasms, and low back pain. I could only sleep 4 or 5 hours per night at most. Overhead motions and head positions were weak, and I would get dizzy (vertigo) looking up for more than one second. Certain muscles in the upper body and shoulders seemed to not grow, and I didn’t know if I was just made that way (I wasn’t). I came down much harder on my left foot with every step. That stomping instead of proper walking led to a broken foot and an extra 2 months of suffering during USMC boot camp. I still had no idea that any of this was related to multiple misaligned vertebrae and overall body imbalance. Every time I sat down my whole body would hurt and I felt a knotting tension that created a pressure in my head (constant headaches to migraines), depending on the amount of stress I was under.
The pain was debilitating by the age of 18. By 21 nobody could figure out the cause, so I went to see a doctor who ordered an MRI. After looking at the results the doctor told me I had no nerve damage and my head would naturally realign. This led me to try another route, physical therapy. Physical therapy provided me with temporary relief for a couple of hours, but the pain always came back.
Finally, 20 years after my injury occurred, I met a traditional cracking chiropractor. Despite being skeptical, I apprehensively agreed to have an adjustment. To my astonishment, everything about me began to improve. (See middle picture, head and shoulder alignment was still off kilter). The power from my brain once again started to flow throughout my body, I could sleep a little longer at night and was able to exercise again without major pain or spasms. The future was starting to look bright, energy was flowing again. One day a couple of years later I got desperate and got a cracking neck adjustment from a non-licensed person. (Not recommended, nor legal!) My problems came back because it cracked me way out of whack.
Soon, thereafter, I met a specialist “non-cracking” chiropractor who precisely analyzed and gave me my first “upper cervical” adjustment. This special adjustment was performed in a manner that created no anxiety or fear for me as a patient. From there, the healing process accelerated. This was the first time I felt the same freedom in my body that I had felt at 8 years old. My chronic pain diminished, and my mood, energy and performance improved. Regular checkups made sure the process of healing progressed.
The adjusting style we practice with patients is similar to the one that transformed my life, but customized for the individual patient. We implement advanced techniques for the entire body. In order to keep the body in place we use Active Release Techniques® (ART). This technique breaks up scar tissue and loosens tight muscles, which can pull the body out of alignment, so the body will stay in the right place. When the body is aligned; power to the body is turned on, the body moves like it should, fluids can circulate, and the whole system can work better. We trust that your body has the inborn ability to heal itself. The “real doctor” is inside of you. Our challenge is for you to unlock your full potential. Our purpose is to help as many people as possible regain and maintain optimal health and ideal lives.
