Dr. Lisa’s Chiropractic Story
When I was 16, I answered an ad in the paper for a receptionist in a healthcare office. As it turns out, the provider was a chiropractor. Prior to working for Dr. Frank Martusciello, all I knew about chiropractic was that it dealt with the spine. What I learned changed my health and my life. At 16, I was suffering with near daily migraine headaches, repeated bouts of strep throat (over 20) which resulted in chronic constipation (I went less than 1 time per week) from over-use of antibiotics as well as asthma, allergies and lower back pain if I walked or stood for any length of time. I carried a bag of Tylenol in my purse and used it daily. At 16, I had come to accept all of this as normal.
Dr. Frank opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking and living. He taught me that the body has an innate intelligence – it is self-healing and self-regulating. If you cut yourself, your body heals it. If you break a bone, the cast merely holds the ends of the bone together; it is your body that mends the break. Your body regulates your temperature and constantly defends you from infection. And it is the nervous system that controls and regulates all of these functions. There are an estimated 1 trillion neurons in the adult brain with over 100 trillion connections! Your nervous system performs over 600 million functions a minute! Dr. Frank taught me that the nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is protected by the skull and vertebral column. This system then exits from between each spinal bone via a nerve. A misalignment of one of these spinal bones can and does interfere with the function of the nervous system. This interference creates dis-ease in the body and can result in a loss of health. He showed me that chiropractic is vitalistic and looks at the whole person. This was very different from my previous experience with healthcare through my pediatrician who addressed my body much like a machine. He would look at the part that was symptomatic and try to give me a medicine that would get rid of the symptom – which wasn’t working for me. I had come to accept disease and feeling lousy as “health” when it was anything but.
I began to get adjusted and everything changed! My headaches went away. I went to the bathroom every day. I no longer got strep throat. I got my energy back! I started to like to go out and shop with my friends because my back no longer hurt to stand and walk. And most of all, I began to trust my body and realize that health was the natural way of being and something that could be achieved and maintained.
It wasn’t until my grandfather got sick and eventually died, that I decided to dedicate my life to chiropractic. He fell when I was sixteen and broke his arm and after that, his health steadily declined. His posture became very poor; he was bent way over and his head was tilted. He developed Parkinson’s and dementia and became bedridden. My mom, sister and I took turns spending the night to help my grandmother care for him; getting him up to go to the bathroom and comforting him as he was so disoriented. His body was so stiff that by pushing on his knee we could sit and then stand him up. At some point, x-rays of his spine were taken and I couldn’t wait to bring them to Dr. Frank. However, his spine was “so far gone” that there was nothing left to work with. He had multiple compression fractures and Dr. Frank couldn’t adjust him. I was devastated! Dr. Frank told me that he had needed chiropractic care decades earlier. When he died, I realized that interference to the nervous system effects not only the quantity but quality of life that we have. I realized that my grandfather didn’t get to “live” the last years of his life.
At that point, I knew that I needed to be a chiropractor and to adjust people to maximize their quantity and quality of life; so they can LIVE all of their LIVES. So that’s my story and why I do what I do.
Over the last two decades, I have seen my practice (and many of my patients) grow. I love the family atmosphere that we have created. We have several generations all under chiropractic care and are always amazed at the family and friendship connections in our practice. In one case, we had five generations of a family under care at one time!
My husband and I have two sons and we enjoy spending family time with them. We love to explore our world traveling whenever we get the chance. We love to be in nature – in the mountains, at the beach, camping and hiking locally. I love to garden and to read. Our oldest has a second degree black belt in Shotokan Karate and is a Lincoln Douglas debater. Our youngest is an avid soccer player playing travel and club soccer. Chiropractic has helped them both stay healthy and perform at their best. I have personally been under chiropractic care for over three decades! My children have been adjusted since birth and we rarely get sick. Chiropractic has helped both of our sons perform their best in their sports and in their lives. We are blessed to be able to live the chiropractic lifestyle. And we here at the Pro Family Chiropractic Center are blessed to be able to share this lifestyle with our chiropractic family too!