"So Dr. Scott, why did you become a chiropractor?" This is a question that people
ask me all the time. I believe every path that God has guided me on allowed me to gain
the skills and experience to become a chiropractor, find my amazing wife Dr.
Lynn, and start OWL Chiropractic with her. As I am writing this, my daughter Ellie, is caring
for me as a patient with her little medical kit. The same games I played with my
family growing up.
Somewhere out there is a picture of me around the same age as Ellie now, around 4 years old, playing with my little medical kit. Healthcare and caring for others have always been central themes in my life. My personal belief about my career, at this point of life and especially from hind-sight, is that I was born to be a chiropractor.
Through my childhood I saw the success my mom achieved working up the nursing education benchmarks, from LPN to RN to BSN, while working full-time and raising 2 boys as a full-time mom and wife. My dad entered his nursing education later in life, after a life-changing trauma caused by a collision involving a city bus, his full-size UPS delivery truck, and a Honda Civic. (Don't worry, he is ok now!) This happened my senior year of high school, so I always thought it was awesome that he was working hard in his college studies the same time that I was completing my own. My dad now has his Doctor of Nursing Practice from University of Michigan.
There are no words for how proud I am of my parents; their achievements and the
experiences they provided me as parents, professionals, and coaches. They worked
their tails off at everything and proved themselves as great parents and role models that
set the examples and provided opportunities to allow me to become the husband, father,
chiropractor, coach, and mentor that I am today.
One of the common reasons why any chiropractor becomes a chiropractor is due
to their amazing experience as a chiropractic patient. At some point(s) in our lives, we have an event or series of events that cause too much stress for our body, spine, and nervous system to handle. In chiropractic, we look for a specific result of these stresses called subluxation. Subluxation is a misaligned vertebrae that has become locked and misaligned, causing stress on the nervous system and is shutting down the input and
output of the central nervous system.
Now, the nervous system controls everything in the body, so there are many health problems that can start because of subluxation; not just pain, but also loss of function. One common cause of subluxation is sports injuries. My subluxations came from the repetitive physical stresses of multiple hockey injuries, blows to the face with boxing training, and all the dumb things most of us did to ourselves as children.
I love hockey. Hockey was my family’s way of life. I started playing hockey around 4 years old and played until my last injury ended my competitive playing career around 22 years old in college. There are plenty of stories I can write about, and someday I might, but to keep this story on point -- a pulled groin muscle is what led me to start as a chiropractic patient. I was 16 years old and had just started playing junior hockey.
After an on-ice practice, we did a 1-mile run followed by plyometrics. In a side-step
lunge, it felt like a hot knife dug through my left inner thigh, my knee buckled, some
choice words were said, and I slowly stood up and hobbled straight to the locker room. I tried for a couple of months to get back at it but kept reinjuring the groin and had to hang up my skates for the rest of the season.
The next year, I pulled my groin again and lost 3 months of the season. During this time, I was also working in a medical doctor's office as a filing assistant. I became a patient of one of the doctors at the office, and he gave me a few things to help with the injury: muscle relaxers, Vicodin, and referrals to a sports doctor and a physical therapist. The medications helped with the pain and discomfort, but I did not like how they made me feel, limiting what I could do, and they did not restore any function. The sports doctor found that a twisted pelvis was the cause and tried a manipulation where he pulled on my leg one time to try and re-align my pelvis. He had no other ideas to correct this and said to have physical therapy help with the pulled muscle. I went to the physical therapist for a couple of months with little to no progress and grew frustrated. I was able to get back and finish that season my senior year of high school, but the injury wasn’t even close to 100% function. I was ready to be done with hockey and focus on school.
Around that time, my dad told me to see his good friend Dr. Kern, a chiropractor
about an hour away. I will never forget seeing that first x-ray of my pelvis subluxation.
He took the time to explain how the left side of my pelvis twisted backwards, causing a
short left leg and extra strain on my groin muscles. It was also causing premature L5
disc degeneration and nerve interference to the leg. It all made sense now. He
explained to me that the years of high-speed collisions, falls, and physical abuse that I loved
about the sport of hockey caused me to have a silent nuisance that ultimately caused
not just my groin injury but also dysfunction of my spine and nervous system.
A subluxation. An answer different from anything else I tried with medical guidance for
almost 2 years. Misalignment of the spine and pelvis causes the body and nervous
system to dysfunction. The correct findings of cause.
What did Dr. Kern do to help?
Specific scientific chiropractic adjustments. I healed up over the next couple of months,
and my function and abilities returned.
The next year, while starting at Oakland University, some of my friends from my
AAA hockey teams convinced me to try out for the hockey team. So, I decided to do it. I
figured it was going to be my last attempt at doing what I love to do competitively. I made their division III team, and shortly after, I was moved up to their division II team. That first season, we were crowned the 2006 ACHA Division II National Champions. A huge highlight of my playing career and achievements in life.
Without chiropractic, I would not have been able to take advantage of that opportunity.
I continued to play and teach hockey while at Oakland University until a shoulder
injury and eventual surgery to repair that injury during my senior year at OU. By this
time, I was well into my decision to become a chiropractor. I changed my pre-med biology focus to a pre-health professional major that focused more on the physical functions of the body, like exercise physiology.
Life University accepted me to their Doctor of Chiropractic program and allowed me to start my chiropractic studies while finishing my bachelor of science degree. I met Dr. Lynn in my 1st quarter of studies, she asked for help with some studying and it has been a wild amazing ride of life since. Thank you to chiropractic. Thank you to my family. Thank you to Lynn. Thank you to all of our mentors, current and past. Thank you to all of our amazing patients at OWL Chiropractic.
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