1. From the
Brink
of Death
A Chiropractic Patient's Story. By Keith W
Jn 1986 lwas on top of the world.
I t naa jusr won the All Navy
I Weightlifting Championships and
heaves would begin around 1 a.m. and
had set a national drug free record
in the bench press. My full time lob
became to lift weights and compete,
and I loved it. I attended college at
night and did a number of exhibitions
and talks in the community. I had
minor celebrity status both in the
Naval Community and in my city. Life
nights theywere two minutes apart.l
went from a solid 22olbs to around
165.l looked like death warmed over.
This went on for oyer a year and
most of it is still a blur. I had to have
someone drive me anytime I needed
to see the doctor. Fortunately I had
good friends in this regard. I saw all
kinds of doctors and was even seen
by one ofPresident Reagan's doctors
at Bethesda. No one really had an
was good.
Shortly after returning from
a
competition tour I began to experience
some sinus headaches and my training
started to plateau a bit. I kept a training
journal since I started liftingin I978
last until sun-up. On good nights, the
heaves were four minutes apart; on bad
answer for what was going on, except
that my immune system was failing.
Diagnoses of Epstein Barr and severe
and tracked myprogress very carefully.
chronic fatigtte syndrome were
The headaches were not bad, just
discussed as possibilities.
annoying. I went to the Navy dispensary
and was given some medications. The
meds worked like magic, except they
gave me nuclear diarrhea. I went back
to the doctor and was given drugs to
stop that. That went away, but then I
experienced seyere dehydration and
I had a meeting with the head of
the Naval Hospital in Charleston in
the summer of 7987.I was brought
into his office and he told me that I
should get my affairs in order because
he felt I only had a few months ro
live. The news was actually a relief. I
was admitted to the hospital. After
many tests, I wdlked out with three
more prescriptions.
My health rapidly began to spiral
downward and soon I was spending
my days at the hospital going from one
doctor to the next. Within a month I
wanted to die and end the misery. I had
was taking 18 drugs a day,which
amounted to about 80 individual pills.
I quickly became homebound and
disabled, unable to work, drive a car or
really do much of anything.
The only food I could keep down
was applesauce and sometimes apple
cobbler. Most nights, I would ger a
blanket and a pillow and just sleep with
the pillow on the toilet because the dry
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a
friend drive me to
a mall later
that
week to buy gifts for my family for the
following Christmas, knowing I was
probably not going to be alive.
While in a B. Dalton Bookstore, a
man asked me if I was ok (I could only
walk maybe 15-20 steps before I had to
stop and rest). I said I was fine, because
I had gotten tired of telling everyone
the story. This guy persisted a bit and
he told me he was a doctor and that
maybe he could help me. I told htm t
had seen some of the best doctors in
the world and then he told me he was
a chiropractor. I think I laughed for the
first time in over a year. I told him I had
"internal" health problems, not neck
and back pain, which was the limit of
my views on chiropractic. He persisted
that I come to his clinic, and about this
time, my friend offered to drive me to
the clinic the next day. I agreed with
absolutelyno intention of going to this
quacks office. On the drive home, my
friend said something hke, "Well you
should give it a shot. What do you have
to lose?" I agreed to go.
I went to the office the next day and
did the whole new patient process; the
doc brought me into the exam room
and began his exam. I was about as
skeptical as you could be, when all of
a sudden, he says, "Hey Keith, did you
have a bed-wetting problem as a kid?"
Wow... how in the world did he know
that? I had a classic bed-wetting case for
most of my childhood for four to five
nights a week. I never spent the night
with a friend and grew our of it by the
time I was 15-16 years old. My parents
spent all kinds of money on therapies
and treatments, but how could this
quack have known about that? He
told me he could tell from examining
my lumbar spine and talked about the
bladder and neryes. He now had my
attentionl If he pulled that one out of
his butt, well it was a good one. He

2. adjusted me the first day and sent me
home with instructions to return.
I woke up the next morning with a
stiff and sore neck; actually my entire
back was sore, not severe pain, but
to be able to walk to the mailbox and
get the mail. Within two weeks I was
driving again, within two months
I was back in the gym training and
ended up far surpassing my previous
just very sore. I knew this guy was a
fraud, I thought to myself, "He hurts
me yesterday and today he is going to
lifts. But I could not figure out what
fix me up! Sorry, don't buy it. No more
chiropractic visits for me." I shaved,
showered and got dressed and as I was
walking down the hall to the kitchen I
was hit with a ton of bricks. I had just
slept through the entire night-for the
first time in about 15 months, had just
answer. I ended up going to chiropractic
orientations at other offices in the area
showered, shaved, dressed and was not
wiped out with fatigue. I was even a bit
chiropractic had done for me. I would
ask the doc and got sort of a vague
in hopes of figuring this all out, but I
was disappointed in that all of the new
patient orientations I attended were
spinal hygiene classes: how to lift right,
bend your knees, drink water, etc.
I could not find much at the library
or on periodical microfiches either.
hungry! So I made some scrambled
Most of what I read tagged chiropractic
eggs (which I love) and had been unable
as
I continued getting adjusted and
being somewhat effective for neck
and back pain, and that was it. Finally
the doc gave me some old, musty
smelling books with of a weird green
color to them and told me that maybe
flushed the meds within the first week.
I would find my answers in them. He
It was not short-term miraculous,
but each day I got a bit stronger and
do more things. It was a huge victory
had never actually read them. The first
a year. I sat down on the
couch and waited for breakfast to come
back up. It never did.
to eat for oyer
volume was 'Bigness Of The Fellow
Within'by aBJ Palmer. I remember
reading it and thinking this guy was
really out in left field.
The more I read it, the more sense it
made and I began going to the medical
library here in Charleston and reading
volumes of anatomy and physiology
books, Guyton's, Harrison's, I saw
this incredible congruence between
the books on how the body act:ually
worked and Palmers writings.
Eventually it sort of clicked in my brain
and I retired from competitive lifting in
order to focus on communicating the
chiropractic message. I dont always like
sharing the message, but I don't feel that
I have the right not to.
If a person rejects the message, that
is fine with me. At that point they are
no longer my responsibility and I can
move on. I don't playgolf or softball.
My free time is spent sharing the
chiropractic message. I do between 250
and 300 talks each year on chiropractic
and plan on doing so as long as I am on
the earth.
I owe that much to the Chiropractic
profession. I
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