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Let’s treat you not your MRI

I visited Dr. Joe today hoping that he would read my MRI report and give me a road map to healing. Joe is a doctor of Osteopathy and he also practices yoga and acupuncture – making him an expert in Eastern and Western thinking.

Osteopathic Medicine is the science of dealing with natural forces in the body. This practice emphasizes that healing comes from within and that the role of the physician is to work with these natural forces using hands-on manipulation to restore structural balance where it has gone wonky.

Dr. Joe studied the MRI of my ruptured disk and whistled softly… wow that’s a big bad one. He compared my disk to the obligatory jelly donut and recounted at least two inspirational stories of patients who recovered miraculously from even uglier disk profiles. Nothing new so far, I muttered.

His probing fingers quickly discovered that my left SI joint was not as mobile as my right one and he was convinced that it may be contributing to the pain along with the dreaded L1/S5 disk. This confirmed my original suspicion and I started to pay attention. This guy is using his touch and instincts not just the MRI.

When I recounted that my spinal specialist ruled out the SI joint as the culprit because it didn’t show in the MRI, Dr. Joe chuckled and said: “let’s treat you not your MRI”. I really liked that idea.

After the information download, Dr. Joe had me lie on his massage table and started the hand-on manipulation part of the program. He placed his hand strategically under the rusty SI joint and started to talk to my wife Elizabeth across the table for what seemed to be an eternity, and at nearly $4/minute I was getting fidgety.  After more minutes of nothing, he announced that he was done. Man that was some subtle shit.

The next day while on the yoga mat I was able to touch my toes for the first time in 3 months.  The improvement was dramatic.  I simply refused to believe that Dr. Joe’s invisible doings were responsible for the minor miracle. But I had to smile; maybe I will go back for the $5/minute follow up.

 

  • Peter Pitzele

    Ronen:

    I know what yo mean about Dr.Joe talking so much but i think he does that to free his intuitive brain.He occupies his mind and ours with chatter while his hands do their dowsing. I think he’s actually gifted not just ell-educated.

    It looks to me like you are onto something with this blog if you can keep it going.I loved how you started with your yoga-ego being dashed story. My back became one of my biggest teacher’s in life and it still is.

    Write on and may this soften you up in just the right ways.

    Peter

    • Ronen Yaari

      His talking was not just his fault — I came in there with tons of questions and kept at him till I got them answered. Can’t do that with my HMO doc. ‘=). The blog is a work in progress not officially launched yet. Thanks for the support.

  • david ehrlich

    hi ronen,
    sending you love and support!
    it’s amazing to read your inspiring thoughts. i’ll be following your blog and look forward to a happy end.
    the other day i was travelling on a beautiful road not far from jerusalem (leading to a stunning cave), and remembered us riding it on bikes a few years ago. my guess is: we’ll be doing it again before long. my secret fear is: i”ll be way behind you, again.
    yours
    daveed
    israel

About Ronen Yaari

I’m no guru and I don’t have hundreds of hours of certifications. All I can claim is that I did not squander the time that I was given so far. I took care of my body from an early age and realized that a fit body was going to be the vehicle of choice to propel me around the planet to find what I was supposed to find. I ran marathons, biked continents, climbed glaciers, walked across states, sailed oceans, explored reefs and floated myself over yoga mats. If the sun is down I’m a sleep and if it’s up I’m outside. My biggest accomplishment by far is creating a family that enjoys each other and puts up with me.