doctor of chiropractic – We Only Get One Chance

SPRINGTIME

There is something super magical about SPRINGTIME here in Michigan and I know you are all feeling it!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody - Expansion

Being that our office is right downtown, we are all always so happy to be part of the walking culture that the DDA of Fenton created for this community!

I often walk outside after a day of work and take a quick jaunt down the street to the post office and put the outgoing mail in the mailbox. Since I am just half a block from there, I usually just continue on around at least the block. But since I am heading around one block, I usually pick one more block….and then one more…and that is how a 20-30 minute walk is done. It goes along with the Law if Inertia – a body in motion will tend to stay in motion…

And if any of you spend any time downtown Fenton, you realize just how much pride people have put into their homes and businesses and IT IS BEAUTIFUL down here!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Dr Erica Peabody Blossoms

Sitting front and center in town for almost 6 solid years already (ALREADY!!!!!), we see lots of people out walking, biking and strolling around. We often see sports teams running by in big groups from Fenton Middle School and Fenton High School. We love all the energy as our community has become a small hub of people taking good care of their bodies and getting their exercise in.

A friend of mine was asking me yesterday how many gyms and fitness centers are in the city of Fenton. I began to list them and it was upwards between 12+ that I could name off the top of my head and I am sure there were some that were skipping my mind. We are fortunate as our city grows, so does our health and wellness culture surrounding it all!

The Peabody Center for Well-Being is the location of Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic office, my chiropractic office and this building is completely occupied with some of the area’s greatest health/wellness/well-being professionals in the area!

Even after 6 years in this location, and many of those years with occupied office spaces, it surprises a lot of people to know that the building houses so many awesome businesses.

About a year ago, we launched a website that serves as a building directory. This is a virtual landing page for all the professionals in the building. I wanted to take a moment and invite you to take a glance through and connect with the businesses that can help you along you and your family’s health and wellness journey!

www.healthyfenton.com

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - 3 Days In - Dr Erica Peabody (810)69-6023 - Grouchy

Take a moment and browse through the site. This is the location that allows you to directly connect and contact each person to set up your appointments! We keep this information up to date to help you!

Enjoy the SPRINGTIME energy of our world right now and make a plan for the healthiest and happiest season ever!

(CLICK LINK BELOW TO ACCESS BUILDING DIRECTORY)

https://www.healthyfenton.com

WHOLEHEARTED

I am living wholehearted.

I am nine weeks post heart surgery. It feels crazy to even be able to say something like that and it has been an incredible shift in my life!

Best Chiropractor Fenton Michigan - Wholehearted - Dr Erica Peabody

14 years ago I was diagnosed with what is called a Patent Foramen Ovale, a congenital heart defect that is present in twenty percent of the population. Many go un-diagnosed and often the first sign is stroke. I feel very fortunate to know this info and I also feel really fortunate that I didn’t have to have a serious incident in order to get this information.

Playing sports growing up, there was clearly something wrong but they just lumped it into the group called “exercise induced asthma” and “when you start gasping and wheezing (which was happening all the time on the soccer field especially) take this inhaler.”

The inhaler never worked, never made a difference except just to make me shake…and be more frustrated because I still couldn’t catch my breath. I continued to play sports and excelled regardless.

When I was 12 years old, I started getting migraine headaches. I can remember my very first one as I woke up around 2am one morning and told my parents “It feels like a bowling ball hit me in the side of my head.” At 12, those were the best words that I could come up with to describe that pain. The migraines have happened anywhere between 2-10 per month since then.

I am sure there are some migraine sufferers out there reading this that know the kind of pain I am talking about, debilitating to say the least. I learned through the years just to deal with them and after the first few years, I still had the same level of pain but I never let it stop me. Life, school, tests, finals, patient care…nothing stops just because I have a headache and pushing through all of it has always been the way I handled them…and most other things in my life.

Best Chiropractor - Wholehearted - Dr Erica Peabody — they made me lay on my back for 8 solid hours following my surgery which was the hardest part

Shortness of breath upon exertion and migraine headaches, combined with numbness into my hands (which would come and go since my late teenage years) are the classic symptom group for Patent Foramen Ovale and I tested positive. To top all of these symptoms off, chronic hypoxia (lack of oxygen) was the over-riding theme since the blood would just skip the trip to the lungs altogether. On a scale of 1-5 for the size of the hole, I tested as a 4.

I scheduled to see the cardiologist 14 years ago and was looking forward to having all of these things improve for me through a surgical procedure where they inserted a patch in the heart. His exact words “I make a lot of money doing these patches but we do not have the research of what happens to the current devices 30-40 years down the road and so if you are not suffering every single day, don’t do it.”

I was bummed because I was truly looking forward to a shift for me, but I was going to listen to the expert.

I revisited the idea and the tests and all of the procedures this past fall. When I went back to the same cardiologist he said “We have the BEST devices now and so YES!!! …considering how you test and just how compromised you are, lets do it!”

I know what you are thinking out there, “How compromised is she? She has done all these things with a hole in her heart, long distance running and biking, hot yoga, taught aerobics classes for 10 years, even climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro! How is that possible?”

I am (well was) VERY compromised but was going to do all the things anyway because that is the fabric I am built from. I do my best not to let anything slow me down.

November 21, 2019 I went under the knife. This is the procedure they did.

The cardiologist wanted me to take on Thursday off work to have the procedure done, stay the night, go home Friday and head back into work on Monday the 25th. Unbelievable to me in the moment he had said that but that is exactly what I did, and I probably saw many of you that day!

I didn’t share much about this ahead of time for the simple fact that the words “heart surgery” freak most people out. I wanted to get through it, survive it and then tell the story when I can really share the details.

This post is getting lengthy and so I will leave this info here for now and then I will share more in the next post.

When you take a moment to do the math of chronic hypoxia my entire life and never slowing down, to getting full amount of oxygen moving forward, you can see how great of a thing this is and the how freakin’ incredible the medical profession is to be able to develop a fix like that video I shared. Literally I am now finally living wholehearted.

PEACHY

From the outside it appears that all is peachy and so simple.

It’s not.
It’s hard, anxiety-driven work to pursue a dream.
It’s long, late night conversations and countless sleepless nights.

It’s questions without answers and conflict without immediate or foreseeable resolution.

It’s stress beyond anything I have ever known.
It’s wildly uncomfortable and feels like running around constantly short on time.
It’s humbling and frightening.
It’s not just out of my comfort zone, it’s as though I took a rocket ship and split from the Universe my comfort zone is in.
It’s so far off the edge and hoping the ground appears somewhere beneath my foot as I take the next step.

It is tears of frustration and moments when I cannot stand being inside my own skin.

It is giving up beach towels and sunglasses for hammers and drills.

It is a deep breath in not knowing when i will have space to exhale.
…AND it’s not just business, it’s every aspect of life.
It’s building a home that’s gone on far, far too long.
It’s learning to partner inside of a relationship rather than run off on my own and do it all my own way.
It’s learning what being a bonus mom is all about and to triplets nonetheless.

It’s wedding planning and all that comes with that (which i am currently trying to figure out).
It’s a constant battle with my subconscious that wants everything to stay the way it’s always been.
It’s tough and messy and faith-building.

It is somehow trusting that stupid phrase “You will only be given as much as you can handle.” Everyone please STOP SAYING THAT!!!!
It’s being sure to meditate every day and pray every night.

…and all this I am writing because I got a great hot shower and did my hair and now I’m dreading walking outside into the humidity which will undo it all in 17 minutes flat. …and so this is me procrastinating and writing to you instead of that.
And now I’ve come to the end of this rant.
Regardless of all that I wrote above, I’m going to make it the best day I can anyway.

Building dreams comes with a lot of hard work and not all of it is peachy.

THE PROPOSAL

Everyone loves love and I have shared this video with so many people, PLUS, there were about 150 people there to witness it anyway…I wanted to share the proposal.

If you are wondering what I am talking about, check a few posts prior to this one. 🙂

Let me set the scene…

I grew up on an apple orchard just south of town called Peabody Orchards. It is no longer a functioning apple orchard and hasn’t been for quite some time.

My family still owns a good portion of it and along with the property came a rusty old crane-like piece of equipment. My brother is an adventurer and he and a buddy of his had an idea if they erected some telephone poles, braced by the crane, wrapped them in chicken wire and put a sprinkler system at the top, they could farm ice and then climb it. This is currently a fully functioning business called Peabody Ice Climbing, sort of like a rock climbing gym only for ice climbers.

Every winter for the past 10 years or so, Peabody Ice Climbing has been hosting people from all over the region for regular ice climbing and even some competitions. For his loyal customers, my brother throws a huge party called Ice Fest and it is a riot every single year. Through the years he has gotten bigger and bigger sponsors to help support his efforts and the party.

It takes a lot of people to get the party started and keep it going. As a family member, I always show up to enjoy the celebration but also help in any way I can.

Little did I know the plan was on me this year, and everyone there was in on it…

At the end of the day the ice climbing portion shuts down and it is time for dancing and a little bit of cheer. The after party goes to the wee hours of the night and, although tiring, is super duper fun.

It kicks off with a raffle for gear donated by the sponsors. I always help with the raffle to be sure everyone get their stuff and all the gear gets into the right hands.

This year was no different…until Mike grabbed the microphone and proceeded to tell our story. It went like this (be sure to watch until the end). It starts with me kneeling down near the floor figuring out the raffle items:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NUSrFVRYAM[/youtube]

So there you have it!

Everyone loves love and through this relationship I have realized that everyone relives their own little love story out along the stories I share. Since there were so many people there to witness it anyway and it was recorded on numerous phones, I thought I would share the proposal with you all.

UNKNOWN

Today I found the unknown staring me in the face.

The unknown is intimidating, very, very intimidating.

As most of you read in my last blog post, I GOT ENGAGED!!!! I am absolutely OVER THE MOON EXCITED, blessed and honored that this man has asked me to be his wife.

…and I have a GORGEOUS RING!!!

Newly engaged, it is hard to turn my eyes away from the ring. I had the chance to pick it out in the beginning of December but to actually wear it is a whole new experience.

As many of you know, I was married at 19 for 7 years. At one point someone said to me “Oh, you have had your ‘starter marriage’.” “STARTER MARRIAGE”??????? Um, sure??? I am not a fan of that concept, I understand the idea of a “starter home” by not a “starter marriage”.

Since then I have dated for 14 years and had some long term relationships, however even during all that time, the voice in my head would chime in and say “How do people actually get to the place of committing to marriage anyway?” I couldn’t make sense of it at the time. Now In retrospect, it is simple to see that internal voice was just making sure I would eventually find the right one and I get it now.

I look down at this ring and it says “commitment” to me in the most beautiful way. But staring right back at me is this huge UNKNOWN.

There are so many unknowns…things that have been on my radar but also things that I/we haven’t thought through completely.

It is scary to look down and know that I have literally committed to the unknown with Mike. The longer I linger in thoughts of the unknown, the more nauseated I get. It’s pure worry and I am sure there may be some place in your life that you can relate to that feeling.

When I snap out of that I think to myself “This unknown is WITH MIKE, my Mike.”

“We’ll figure it out” has rolled off our tongues so much to each other throughout our courtship. It is accompanied by this incredible I’ve-got-your-back energy, confidence, respect and honor and is followed by actually figuring things out together.

It is the most beautiful thing I have ever been involved in, the most innocent and precious connection.

We have not had a simple and easy road so far. We have been together for just over nine months but we have already scaled some walls and traversed some valleys that stood in our way. Something that is working in our favor is our age. I think when I was involved in my marriage at such an early age, as was Mike was as well, it is difficult to know who you are and what you want life to really look like. Also there is so much growth and evolution that happens through the 20s, it is simple to get set up in relationship patterns that will not go the distance.

We have both been there and have learned a lot along the way. The lessons have been interesting and some so painful it was often difficult to see any light. Neither of us fantasize about how easy marriage will be, but we do remain hopeful that things can remain simple.

What I have learned through 14 years of dating is that core values are the most important key to finding a partner. Deep core values NEED to line up. I have dated enough to know a little bit about connection and what questions to ask right from the start. When I was younger, it was difficult to ask the heavy hitting questions and that landed me in relationships that couldn’t endure he long haul.

So Mike and I had a lot of hard discussions right up front and vetted out some of the serious topics to be sure we lined up. Of course there will always be that work to do.

The other thing that has really built our foundation we bring up absolutely anything and everything that is on our minds, no matter what it is. Because of this we have been able to get to the roots of our personal challenges and have the hard talks about life and what we are looking for.

He is my safe place, my home and has been from the very beginning.

Together we will walk hand in hand into the unknown. From the outside this may look and sound like a match made in heaven with all rainbows and butterflies and unicorns. There are many obstacles, I will reveal more as time goes by, big obstacles that we have overcome already and some yet to be uncovered.

Jumping off the cliff into the unknown seems do-able with Mike. Father Time will be the great determiner and until then I will embrace the work, lean into the discomfort, have faith and put one foot in front of the other.

As I am writing this, I am curious to know more about you. I am curious if you have found yourself staring into the face of the unknown as well as maybe a hint or two about how you stepped in anyway. How did you do that? What did you bank on? Where was your courage sourced from? I think we can learn a lot from each other’s experiences. Leave your comments for me…

HUMILIATED

I am absolutely humiliated!

A patient walked into the Cafe of LIFE last Wednesday afternoon and asked me where I was earlier that day and why I wasn’t here when my office hours said I would be here.

“What do you mean? I am always here for our office hours Wednesday morning is 7:30a-10a.”

“That is not what your business card says.”

When we looked closer, our business cards have our office hours as “7:30am-1pm”. For months.

Sometimes when reviewing a proof for those kinds of things, the brain will look at something, skim right over an error and make up something completely different. That is exactly what happened.

So in essence it has looked like we just high-tail it out of here whenever we feel like it on Wednesday during that time slot. And if you know me like most of you do by now, I would NEVER do that.

She continued, “Yeah I was talking to my mom and she said ‘well she must just come and go as she pleases.’ You really don’t seem like that kind of a person to me.”

Um…I am NOT that kind of a person and I am not that kind of professional! I feel a lot of responsibility to all of you and there are a lot of people that rely on us. I was born with punctuality and responsibility woven into my fabric, that is just how I am.

So needless to say we looked over all our thousands of card that I ordered just a couple months ago and realized they were all wrong. In the meantime, every person that has come into this office, we always tell them, “Make sure to grab a card at the front desk, our hours are on the back.”

OH. MY. GOODNESS. I am seriously humiliated.

Yes I am only human and there are humans involved in the making and printing process of these things and mistakes can happen.

And by now I am sure you can imagine just how very GRATEFUL I am to this lady who brought this mistake to my attention!!!

The last thing I want to do is look like a slacker, and especially when I am not.

To all of you out there reading this that we may have confused and misled, I apologize and am so humiliated. Live and learn, right? You can bet I will have many different sets of eyes on all future materials like that.

BVI SAILING PICTURE DIARY

In order to have seen many of the pictures of our BVI sailing trip, you would have to have been a friend of mine on Facebook or have come into the Cafe of LIFE. There are quite a few asking about my trip so I wanted to put together a little BVI Sailing Picture Diary for you to take a glance at some of what we did with our 10 days on our sailboat Yacht Emily Morgan.

These are my friends, some really good friends that I have traveled with often. They all live in Denver and are all chiropractors…and have been trying to get me to move out west since I moved home 11 years ago. I met all of them in 2001 within the first week of starting chiropractic college at Life University in Atlanta, GA. I love each of them for what they add to my life, my being and the level of joy and laughter daily, even when we are not together.

These are my feet and this is the front of the boat. The entire trip was absolutely beautiful, as you can tell, and this was such an awesome spot to take it all in.

Christmas morning, we are in the midst of our white elephant gift exchange and I ended up with a selfie-stick which I was totally stoked about!!! My friends, Marco and Scott, and to the right in the picture, is Bones, the owner of the ship, host extraordinaire, comedian, dance instructor, master sailor. We got lucky to be on this boat with him and his wife!!

Later on that day using said “selfie-stick”…

…and then I realized that I hardly needed any friends to take my pictures or be in my pictures because I now had a SELFIE STICK!!!! I am only kidding…that is not really true, we all need our friends.

Then one day Bones took us knee-boarding on the back of the dinghy. It has been since June 24, 1998 since I have been knee-boarding. I remember the date so clearly because I ended up breaking my nose out on Lake Ponemah (a whole different blog post to share that story, maybe). It was super fun to be knee-boarding and of course I can’t help but always try to see what’s still possible on that thing. Here is me doing my best rendition of “Hey Mom!!! Look at me!!!” …only my Mom wasn’t anywhere around. 🙂

Emily Morgan hauls around these paddleboards we could take out anytime we wanted. So much fun although I am not sure I used them all that much. This trip became quite a sedentary trip actually.

But while we were sitting around all day, we would see such BEAUTIFUL rainbows!!! Spectacular rainbows and a few of them each day. I know this picture may not even seem real but this was shot with just an iPhone camera, no zoom. Crazy beautiful place!!!

And while I am at it, enjoy these two beautiful pictures!

Sundown time was some of the coolest lighting of the entire day. I think coupled with the sway of sitting on the boat and about to eat some of the most delicious food, it became our most favorite part of each day.

…it was time for another selfie… 🙂

After the first few days of strictly being only on the boat, we began to crave being on land and would dinghy into shore and get grounded for a few minutes. Sometimes we would find beautiful beaches to hang out on but mostly we just needed to not be moving, swaying and rocking for a few minutes.

I LOVED learning about sail physics and helping with to put sails up and take them down. The greatest part of our trip is our hosts could completely handle the boat themselves and so we could choose how much we wanted to participate in crewing the boat minute by minute. I just loved the raising and lowering of the sails, literally the mechanism that was catching the wind and moving us around these islands…how freakin’ cool is that?!?!?! I am still in awe of how it all works and am excited to find a sailing vessel of some sort this coming summer…maybe windsurfing. Yeah, that sounds about right for me.

This is a picture of my room. These 2 bunk beds that were available to me and I ultimately found that the top one had the best air flow. I do not sleep well when my body is moving (in the car, on a plane and apparently not on a boat either). Aside from a sedentary 10 days, sleeping was the only other downfall of being on the sailboat for me. I am particular about sleep and need certain pillows and support and position and basically the only way to sleep in this bed was to tie up a hammock up to the wall at the head and foot of the bed to keep from rolling out at night as the boat rocks in the waves. This took a while to get used to and then once I was home, it took a while to get use to being in a bed that was not moving. It is interesting to watch the brain try to adapt to all of that!

This is how our days were spent…sitting, sailing and chatting. This particular group of friends are what I consider “growth friends”. We are always presenting ideas, talking things over, offering each other perspective and solving the problems of the world…well our own small worlds if you want to be particular.

Another incredible evening anchored in some beautiful place, rocking in the waves, chatting about the day and prepping to wind down for the night.

New Year’s Eve was spent on the island of Jost Van Dyke at a world famous bar called Foxy’s. It is amazing that among the 3,000 people at this party that I can be dancing around the place and come across a sticker of one of the businesses, Unlimited Offroad, here in Fenton, MI. It amazes me to be thousands of miles away and have evidence of Fenton’s greats right in front of me!!

These guys…the greatest!!!

And these two, Bones and Anna and their beautiful boat Emily Morgan, exceptional is not even the word great enough for them. 24 hours per day for 10 solid days with 6 demanding goofballs in their home…I have no idea how they endure something like that. This is the moment stepping off the boat and parting ways after our 10 days. We were truly like a big happy family with them and we all miss them. You can see in their smiles and in their energy fields, even after 10 FULL DAYS, they have the biggest servants hearts of any people I have seen in a while. Our trip was as amazing as it was due mostly to them. Look them up if ever you are looking to have an exceptional vacation!

So that concludes the BVI sailing picture diary. If think I covered the trip thoroughly as I also strongly believe that pictures tell the best stories. Until next time…I am still “Sailing the Scene, 2016!”

LUCKY

I was a lucky kid. I got my spine checked and adjusted by a chiropractor for as long as I can remember. I went to an office right here in town where CRUST is located right now. My mom took my brothers and I at least once per month to make sure we were growing and developing normally.

This morning I started a woman under care that is 82 years old. She was an absolute delight and she got talking about this “old chiropractor that used to be right downtown Fenton” that she used to go to and take her children when they were growing up.

It just so happens to be the same chiropractor that my family went to.

I have to share the story she shared with me. You all know we see a lot of children at Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic however sometimes I don’t get a chance to really share much of the “WHY” we see children.

She started off with a story of her son, when he was 10 years old, decided to parachute off the neighbor’s roof using an open umbrella. Mary Poppins flew around with an umbrella and everyone can probably see exactly why a child might try to make that happen.

This young man came crashing down and fortunately wasn’t hurt too badly…or so they thought at the time.

The very next morning this young boy woke up and couldn’t talk. He could move his mouth but no voice or sound would come out. They immediately went to see their medical doctor. That doctor ran all kinds of test on this young boy, all tests were negative. They sent him home with breathing treatments and some sort of cough syrup. While he was on breathing treatments and syrup, he was able to do some talking but it had to be a constant daily regimen. It never resolved it, just kept symptoms at bay. After some time, the medical professionals recommended surgery to help this issue however they only gave them 50/50 chance of regaining his voice and the other half was losing his ability to vocalize completely.

Mom started wondering “how am I going to tell this 10 year old boy that he cannot talk much and cannot talk loudly and to save his voice?”

Her chiropractor at the time mentioned that maybe she should bring him in and see if he could help with this issue.

“Talking and voice issues and chiropractic care?” Ultimately she decided this has to be better than surgery and they would give it a try. Within just a few short months of starting regular chiropractic care, he healed. His voice and ability to vocalize returned to normal.

So how does this work? Children jump and fall and traumatize their bodies all the time. The nerve system is the master control center of the body and is housed within the spinal column. If there is interference in the connection wires of the nerve system, the body cannot heal and grow and develop as normal and all kinds of things can be a little bit “off”. Over time, that little bit “off” can build up leading to further stress and even further diminished communication within the body, and potentially symptoms. Chiropractor Fenton Michigan Umbrella

The nerves in the neck supply all the things in the head, face, shoulders, arms and hands. Guess what? Vocal cords and ability to use your voice is controlled by nerves in the neck. If the nerves are off, thing can go a little haywire. This young man had interference in the nerves in the neck even though he did not fall and land on his head.

The bottom line is the body works better with a good nerve supply. Does chiropractic care fix voices? No, we help normalize the body and allow it to heal. Chiropractic care was discovered when an adjustment restored hearing to a man that had gone deaf. Does that mean chiropractic care cures deafness? No, not a chance. We are always assisting the body to do its job better…all of its jobs.

I feel so lucky to have been checked and adjusted since I was little. If you ask all of my brothers, they would say the same thing and are choosing the same for their children right now. Fortunately for me, I get to care for those precious littles since we all live close to each other.

If we take care of the spine in the younger stages of life, there is a higher potential of growing, healing and developing normally and that is why we see so many children at the Cafe of LIFE. I loved this woman’s story because I think we all know a child or were a child that thought we could fly or at least wanted to give it a try!! I also love this story because it reminded me of where my love for chiropractic first started.

I am opening up this conversation to everyone. If you have questions about your children and how chiropractic could help them, reach out and let me help you understand better. Email me at erica@cafeoflifefenton.com. I would love to hear from you!

10 YEARS TODAY

It is “Throw Back Thursday” and exactly 10 years today that I graduated from Chiropractic College. From the time I started college to finishing with my doctorate was also 10 years.

It is very clear that decades go on in the blink of an eye and it truly is important to take each day lightly and have fun. I have had so many incredible experiences and memories, and have learned so much in this past decade.

In the last 10 year:

I graduated from Chiropractic College with these great guys and loaded up my things and moved home to Fenton, MI.

I moved in with my parents, moved into an apartment, bought a condo and bought a home.

I started a practice, Cafe of LIFE Chiropractic at 110 Trealout Dr, moved my practice to 114 W. Caroline Street (where Crust is currently) and we found permanent digs in 2010 at 521 N. Leroy St.

I have celebrated the marriage of my mother to my step dad, and 2 of my brothers to 2 very beautiful women.

I have welcomed 4 nieces and 3 nephews, and watched my brothers become fathers.

I have been to countless birthday parties, holiday parties and spent hundreds of hours at the lake with my family.

I have had 5 extraordinary women help me run my practice…Thank you Lauren, Rachel, Vickie, Angie and Alyssa.

I have had 7 of the greatest massage therapists on my team…Thank you Rachel, Teri, Kelli, Rachael, Toni, Kel Leigh and Nicole.

I have traveled a lot and have some fun stamps on my passport.

I have participated in a Chiropractic Service Trip <<–YouTube picture book (Peru August 2014).

I have run a marathon, Chicago in 2006, many half-marathons, Crim 10 milers and other races.

I have finished 4 triathlons.

I have been to hundreds of yoga classes, maybe close to a thousand.

I took yoga teacher training and doula training.

I have been in love, been loved and fallen out of love.

I have done a FLASH MOB, jumped out of an AIRPLANE and taken a ride in a helicopter.

I have had health challenges, sports injuries and have more faith in the body’s ability to heal than ever before.

I have attended births, I adjusted women before labor, during labor and immediately after birthing their babies.

I have checked and adjusted too many babies to count, more kids than I can imagine, and I can’t even fathom how many adults.

I have adjusted people minutes after birth and hours prior to death, and those who have just lost someone important.

I have laughed more in the last 10 years than ever before in my life.

I have had more fun than ever before in my life.

I have cried so many tears of joy and sorrow.

I have never loved life so much as I do at this point right now.

I have made so many great friends, lost a few and learned so much from connections with others.

I have learned to embrace the moment, be present to the day and squeeze as much juice out of life as I possibly can.

I am so grateful, so very very grateful to be of service to a community that has given me so much.

I am so freakin’ grateful for my support system of people near and far and grateful to have people in my life that help me keep my flame lit.

I had no idea when that picture above was taken at my graduation that all of this stuff would have happened.

It has been quite a ride, I look forward to seeing what the next 10 years will bring.

10 years today. Truly unbelievable it has been 10.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDi7nW_l_Pw[/youtube]

CELEBRATE

It was right around this time in 1996, while attending Michigan State University, that I woke up at 2AM and decided I was going to be a chiropractor and went right back to sleep. I never turned back and now we will celebrate because of that.

Fast forward through 6 years of undergraduate school and I finally enter Life University College of Chiropractic. Four intense years later I graduate with my doctorate and find my way back to Fenton.

My original plan was to open my office in Ann Arbor which changed when I realized how difficult parking is in the downtown area. My second plan was to open the Café of LIFE in Birmingham, where my family is originally from and still stands Peabody’s Restaurant.

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I was living in Fenton with my mom and step-dad so I was driving around this area a lot. I always had my eyes open and one day a really cute little place came up for sale that got me thinking of potentially opening my doors here instead.

I brought the idea to my mom and she said “If the names French Laundry and Fenton Hotel can make it as restaurants, a Café of LIFE can make it as a chiropractic office.”

I wasn’t set on Fenton as being my landing place and so my HIGHEST priority when searching for office space was a 1 year lease (most commercial spaces require at least 3 years).

I settled on a space on Trealout Dr. and opened my doors 9 years ago on March 12th…and the rest truly is history.

I had no idea when I moved home that I would still be here 9 years later. I had no idea how much fun I was going to have being a chiropractor. I had no idea how many families I would become part of. I had no idea I would get to serve so many babies and chldren. I had no idea I would enjoy giving back to the community I grew up in so much. I had no idea I would find such amazing support here in this small town. I had no idea I loved Fenton so much.

But I do, and so here I am.

If you are reading this blog post, I am very grateful that our paths have crossed. I am so grateful you have allowed me to be part of your family, your life and your healthcare team. Thank you for spreading the word about chiropractic and about the Café of LIFE. I get choked up when I have a moment to think about how blessed I am to be part of your life. It is my pleasure to be your chiropractor.

I also have to say thank you to my amazing staff. We have seen some faces come and go, and even when they go, they don’t go far. A HUGE THANK YOU to the beautiful Alyssa that is currently manning this ship and keeping us all in line. Also THANK YOU to Teri who is our little engine that just keeps giving and loving and serving after all these years. THANK YOU to Rachael and Kel Leigh as they round out my incredible team. We wouldn’t be the Café of LIFE you all know today without these amazing ladies.

One last THANK YOU to all of you for sending your friends and loved ones our way! We are looking forward to serving all of you for many years to come!

Truly, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for allowing me to serve you.

NOW LET’S EAT CAKE!!! Join us for your adjustments and stay and celebrate with a piece of cake 7:30a-10a & 3p-6p on Wednesday, March 12th!!!