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[Below is a transcript of the podcast]
Cheri Landin: Hello and welcome to The Mortgage Company Community Partner podcast series. My name is Cheri Landin and I am the Community Development Director with The Mortgage Company and one of the pleasures of this role is I get to interview our community partners and I have one here with me today. Her name is Dr. Danelle Wesley and she is a chiropractor here in town and we are going to learn all kinds of things about what a chiropractor is, what they do, and who needs them. So welcome Danelle.
Danelle Wesley: Hi Cheri thank you so much for having me.
Cheri Landin: Absolutely. So let’s just start. I like stories about what motivates people, right? So to become a chiropractor, I do know, takes a lot of time, school, you name it. And so what motivated you to become a chiropractor
Danelle Wesley: Yeah. So it’s actually a really cool story. So when I was only 7 years old, I had sort of a freak experience, if you will. So I grew up in the country the farm side, corn-field side of Wisconsin as you know (Go Packers) and I was playing outside like a normal kid, rough and tough but nothing too traumatic. And I woke up one morning and I literally couldn’t move anything but my fingers and my toes. I was essentially paralyzed in bed. I could wiggle them but that was about it. It was very scary. So, of course, you’re going off your parents at 7 years old and they have no idea what’s going on, what happened and so in a panic, they start calling around local hospitals which are like 40 plus minutes away. And they didn’t want to risk the drive, they didn’t want to call the ambulance quite yet. So essentially they started calling around to our local clinic and they were fully booked and there was no wiggle room in the schedule. So they started to look into other alternative options and they came across a chiropractor in town, which was completely out of left field because no one in my family went to chiropractors. We didn’t know what they were we didn’t know what they did. And so it was really cool. They ended up taking old school TV trays and sliding them underneath me to like stretcher carry me into the car. Yeah, it was intense. And I remember going into the chiropractor’s office, kind of got carried in, and he was talking about doing an exam and he’s like, “OK we’re going to do some adjusting and it might sound a little bit like popcorn.” And again I’m seven years old and like popcorn sounds great. That’s good. And then you know flash-forward and I remember walking out the door that day and I’ve never had an occurrence of that sense. So it was almost, I want to say like a miracle treatment but there’s real science behind it. It was great. And so that was my first experience and I continued to go to a chiropractor when I was young and through high school. I had headaches and migraines and it really helped to overcome those illnesses myself and so I’m like this stuff works. And this is amazing and this is what I want to do.
Cheri Landin: Wow. So that young. So many people like they change over and over: I want to do this and that. But you just knew.
Danelle Wesley: I did. I mean I always knew I wanted to be in the health-care field and something with the body. And it came to the medical convo and I don’t really like dealing with needles and blood and humanly fluids and all that kind of stuff. So I was like this isn’t really my cup of tea. And I had really great chiropractors growing up so it was really motivating. And I decided that this is what I want to do.
Cheri Landin: Awesome. Alright. So tell me how long have you been a chiropractor and where is your practice?
Danelle Wesley: So I’ll have been in practice for four years this April. And I practice up at a clinic called Moyer Total Wellness and it’s up on Louisiana and Colorado Boulevard.
Cheri Landin: I know where it is. I’ve been there. And by the way, I will tell you she’s a great chiropractor just as a side note. I’ve been to several over the years too for various reasons. But yeah you definitely are different. We’re going to talk about that.
Danelle Wesley: Thank you.
Cheri Landin: Alright. So a chiropractor you know a lot of people when you hear “chiropractor,” some people love it, some people hate it, and some people are just even afraid to try it. And they also think the only reason you go to a chiropractor is because your back is sore. Right. It’s like you equate chiropractor with back, most people. Tell me about that. That’s not the case right
Danelle Wesley: No not at all. So you know most practice, people are coming in with an acute injury of some sort whether they pull their back shoveling snow one day when it was a heavy wet snow or maybe they’re playing sports or had a car accident or something like that. And so there are the more traumatic cases. But I also have clients who come in on a wellness basis where they are moving good, feeling good, and they just want to keep their neuromusculoskeletal system healthy and they want to keep moving and keep doing their big adventures. We treat all kinds of things it’s not just the spine, although that is the chiropractic specialty, neuromusculoskeletal system, so how it all works together. I’ve worked with shoulders, rotator cuff tears, strains and sprains and knee injuries, hips, carpal tunnel, headaches, jaw pain, TMJ issues. I’ve had a client as little as four days old and so obviously they’re not in a lot of acute pain from things going on but mom and dad are very big wellness advocates and they want to make sure their kids get in the step in the right direction from as little as possible.
Cheri Landin: Wow that’s interesting. So four days old to… what’s the range
Danelle Wesley: My oldest client I’ve had so far was 92 years old and so I’ve treated everywhere in between. And it’s been very great and the techniques vary from every age to every body to every person. So some techniques can be a little bit more gentle some may need to be a little bit more aggressive in that we would do more myofascial work or muscle release body work versus adjusting. Some of my clients I don’t even adjust. It just depends on what they need in that moment.
Cheri Landin: Alright so I know one of the things that you say often is, “I’m not the crack and go typical chiropractor.” So what makes you different
Danelle Wesley: Exactly. Yes. So that crack and go has a negative connotation. It’s very much people think, “Ouch!” And in and out fast, I have to keep going, and they want me to come in two times every week for the rest of my life. And that just does not resonate with me. It tells me that there’s one of two things or both going on. Either the doctor isn’t doing everything they can to help that person or the client’s not being patient or maybe even a little bit of both. And so I really like to focus on educating my clients on how they can take care of themselves. So I’ll help you through that acute pain stage to get you moving. I’m going to give you exercises, stretches, things to working outside of the office so that we can be a team. It’s not you or I it’s us together and how we can get your body moving. So yeah I definitely am not the crack and go chiropractor. I really like to spend time with my clients and I like to make sure that they’re getting the most out of their care. So we don’t actually have to see each other all the time.
Cheri Landin: Yeah I know. I mean when I talk to people they are saying, “I go to the chiropractor two, three times a week sometimes and it’s like a forever thing.” Well if you have to go that many times, something’s not working
Danelle Wesley: There’s a disconnect. And there is the more acute phase if someone has an injury or an accident we’ll see them a little bit more frequently upfront but that should change. That should change from a more of a passive care to an active care, where they’re actually doing stuff on their own and be able to go and live their lives and do the things that they want to do.
Cheri Landin: Yeah well that would be the hope for everyone I would think. I love you and all but I don’t want to come see you three times a week.
Danelle Wesley: I say the same thing to my clients. I love you guys but I don’t want to see you all the time.
Cheri Landin: Right. So let’s say someone has, you call it an acute injury. So they need more care upfront. Understood right. There’s an imminent need for whatever it is. So once they get through that initial phase and you teach them to do their own thing is it still a good idea to come and see a chiropractor and if so, how often, is there a maintenance? Like you said wellness.
Danelle Wesley: Yeah absolutely. So my goal, 90 % of the time is to get people on a wellness plan and that’s going to be, I always recommend anywhere from maybe once a month to once every month and a half to two months, just to tune in and check in. But again that means that they’re also doing exercises and stretches outside of there. Maybe they’re working with a massage therapist or an acupuncturist or other alternative health care means so that they’re taking care of themselves. It’s not always having to come to the rescue but yeah that is always the goal. I really recommend it, getting your neuromusculoskeletal system aligned and checked out every month is a good idea.
Cheri Landin: I think too, in today’s world, people are just wanting more natural and holistic ways to stay healthy. If you can avoid having surgery or you know anything like that, this would be, when someone is hurt, start there before you just sign up to be cut open.
Danelle Wesley: Exactly. And I have a lot of clients come in, an acute injury where they hurt their shoulder doing something funny over the weekend and they’ll come to me first and they’ll say, “OK Doc, what are you thinking? Is this something I need to go and have an image on? Do I need to go have a surgical console?” And I help them through that process. I obviously don’t do surgery in my office. It’s not my scope of practice, but if need be, I will refer them for an orthopedic consult. I refer for imaging all the time. We don’t have X-ray or MRI in our office but I do have a lot of great imaging centers that I work with. So it’s a very easy referral for me to make. And it gives both of us the information we need to make the next best step.
Cheri Landin: Alright. So outside of someone having an injury and they know they need help ASAP kind of a thing, what are some of the most common, that people wouldn’t think, what are some of the most common reasons outside of an actual injury that people come to you for and that you like to have patients.
Danelle Wesley: So I get a lot of headache clients, which I resonate very well with because I’ve had headaches my whole life and chiropractic has really helped me with those, and so headaches and migraines are really common in my practice. I have children coming in where they may be wetting the bed or they’re not sleeping, not eating, especially in like the younger patients, infants, and toddlers. Maybe some colic, ear infections. Another really big one that people don’t think of is vertigo and how you know relatively easy it is for a chiropractor to work on vertigo. There are different kinds and so the severity may be different for some people but for classic Vertigo conditions, chiropractic can be really beneficial. And there’s no antibiotics and medications and any sort of invasion to the body in that end which is really great.
Cheri Landin: That’s really interesting. Yeah. So if you know someone that keeps a bottle of Advil in their desk drawer might be good.
Danelle Wesley: That would be a fantastic patient. Yes. Because that’s going to kind of rot you from the inside out and it’s going to wreak more havoc quietly and internally. And there are ways you can work around that.
Cheri Landin: So just if you could just talk a little bit about you know a misconception that chiropractic hurts or you hear someone that says I went to the chiropractor and they hurt me I’m never going back.
Danelle Wesley: Right. And so like in every profession there is good and bad, right? Your auto mechanic might be great or they might be a total crook. Same with hairdressers, dentists, you name it. So same with chiropractic. I mean there are some practitioners out there who are after money and they’re just trying to turn and burn numbers. And so they’re hearts not in it. The thing to not be afraid of with Chiropractic is that if you don’t like the first person you work with, to not be afraid and to try another practitioner because everyone’s so different. It should not be painful. You know when I work on people I’ll do a lot of myofascial work, a lot of body work, muscle work and so to me that is usually a little bit more uncomfortable for people than it is for the actual adjusting but by the time we get to the adjustment, which is usually the easiest part of my job, they’re like, “Oh that was that was nothing. That didn’t hurt at all. It actually felt really good.” And most of the time, people after they’ve been adjusted, they have a sigh of relief or they giggle, they laugh and the like wow that was great.
Cheri Landin: OK so expand on that. So the work that you do prior to the adjustment does that like warm up the body to the adjustment or what does that work?
Danelle Wesley: Yeah absolutely. So it is a very fancy massage. So basically what it is, is we’re trying to loosen up, lengthen muscles so that when we go in, we try to move the bony segments, the joints, that the adjustments actually hold so that they’re not going to rebound or recoil and go right back to where they were. If you have a rubber band and you pull it tight and you try to do anything with that rubber band tight, it’s not really going to move. And when you let go, it’s going to just recoil back to it’s shortened state. So the idea is that we’re trying to lengthen a muscle to get it nice and mobile, nice and loose so that when we go to the adjustments, it’s easy and it sticks and it stays.
Cheri Landin: Alright. So that makes sense. And I know I have been like I said personally to chiropractors over the years and many of them that I saw just went straight into an adjustment. And then when I came to you it was very different. You did a lot of that work and that explains the reason that I was, I would say I was never really hurt with chiropractic, it never hurt me, but it definitely was a different experience.
Danelle Wesley: Yeah. I’ve heard that many times before so I’m trying to change the face of chiropractic, make it more user-friendly
Cheri Landin: One chiropractor at a time. Alright so is there anything else that you’d like to share with anyone that might be listening right now. Just about the profession in general or you know when and if someone should just come in or can someone just talk to you about it first.
Danelle Wesley: Absolutely, absolutely. I think you should always have an open relationship with your chiropractor. You should be able to ask questions and get answers and if they can’t help you there should be an honest conversation and helping lead you in the right direction. So yeah if you’ve not tried chiropractic before, I highly encourage it. You don’t have to be in pain to see a chiropractor, though that is one of the most common ways that people present. You don’t have to be. And so if you just want to be well, live well and keep moving and you know take on your next big adventure tomorrow, a month from now, years down the road. It’s well in your advantage to see a chiropractor and talk with them and see if they can help you.
Cheri Landin: Alright good. So if anyone’s out there right now listening to this or reading the blog that we have posted, whatever it is and they want to talk to you, how does someone get in touch with you
Danelle Wesley: Absolutely. So you can find me online. My name is spelled a little bit differently so I’ll spell it out. It’s Danelle Wesley Chiropractic LLC. You can find me online, you can find me on Facebook, you can find me on Google. You can also find me at my practice at the office of Moyer Total Wellness. And again we’re up on Louisiana and Colorado Boulevard. The clinic number there is 303-756-9355. And I’m always happy to have a conversation with you. Don’t be afraid to call, I’d love to answer your questions and guide you in the right direction.
Cheri Landin: Awesome. Alright. Well, thank you for the information and great talking to you.
Danelle Wesley: Thanks for having me, Cheri.
About Danelle Wesley
Cheri Landin
NMLS #: 984868
NMLS #68929