Palmer Florida Students Visit CLEAR Institute During Fall Break 2006

Six students from Palmer Florida spent a week at CLEAR Institute in St Cloud MN training with Dr. Dennis Woggon. His wife spent several weeks preparing the apartment in the basement, so we wouldn't have to stay in a hotel. The apartment was lush with a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, enough mattresses to sleep 6, 2 t.v.'s, and lots of character. We had full reign of the 9000 square foot clinic in the evenings when we'd hang out in the classroom doing line analysis on radiographs, or we'd go upstairs to rehab in the clinic. 2 students were diagnosed with scoliosis during the first day's clinical exam. Too bad that wasn't caught earlier, considering their both 3rd year students in chiropractic college. Not to worry, because by the end of the week, both of them had their Cobb angles reduced to less than 10^, so technically, they no longer have scoliosis. How about that?!

Dr. Dennis actually shifted his patient schedule around so that we were basically the only ones he saw on Tuesday & Thursday. He presented several incredible and informative lectures on scoliosis screening, alar ligament damage, radiographing the spine, and x-ray line analysis. He also gave us a lot of one-on-one training with adjustment set-ups. We also got chiropractic care from the masterful Dr. D. Just wait until I post the before and after posture and radiograph photos of our team. . . amazing!

Even though we were assigned homework almost every evening on top of our isometric exercises and rehab, we also had a few hours of down time. I already mentioned that I ran with the gals on a trail along the Mississippi River. Dr. Dennis also treated the group to a ride on the Mississippi on his pontoon, followed by a delicious meal prepared by his lovely wife Brenda. We had fun cooking together in the apartment, and we made a necessary stop to Buffalo Wild Wings per Karson's persistent requests.

Below is a smattering of a few of my favorite photos from our trip. I'll post pictures from the pontoon ride in the near future. Enjoy!!

Walking the tightrope with headweights and/or glasses

Kristin strengthens the medial aspect of her knees by squeezing an exercise ball while lying on a vibrating table

Karson demonstrates the sacrum strap while he stands on the Vibe

Lectures in the CLEAR Institute classroom

Katie & her squished cheeks in the scoliosis traction chair. I love this photo!

Jeff in the Scoliosis Traction Chair

Katie toughing out 100 reps of cervical traction to imbibe the disc, restore cervical lordosis, and warm up her spine prior to getting adjusted

Katie enjoys flexion-distraction on the Eckard table
Josh sets up anterior dorsal adjusting on Jeff while Dr. Dennis instructs
Karson on the Vibe Drop Traction: he went from an "S" curved neck with severe forward head posture to achieving a lordosis (curve) in his neck in only 3 days!
Jeff tractioned through the Pneumex, marching on the step machine while wearing glasses
Lunch at the Renaissance CafeHolding 1 month old baby James who's already a Texas Longhorn
Karson at Legoland at the Park in the Mall of America