Clinic Coolness

• On Friday, I adjusted an infant for the first time. A 5-week-old infant presented with persistent right head rotation. For his 2-hour newborn exam, he kept his head turned toward the right the entire time. His parents had noticed that he preferred to keep his head to the right for several weeks. Nothing could encourage him to turn his head to the left (jingling keys, mommy's voice, nothing). As I passively tried to rotate it while he was lying on his back, he arched his back and started crying. He didn't not want to turn his head toward the left.
• I held him with his back toward my chest, and again passively rotated his head to the left. Then, I tractioned upward on his skull/occiput. I lightly tapped on his atlas (Rt TP) with my pinky with 3 swift but gentle taps. Afterward, his neck muscles immediately felt more relaxed and symmetrical. While his mom swaddled him, he was actively turning his head to the left and to the right.
• It was the coolest thing I had ever seen! Adults can respond pretty quickly to chiropractic adjustments, but I didn't feel like I was applying ANY force to the baby, and he responded so well and so fast to an impulse on his atlas.
  

• Today I treated a patient with cerebral palsy. The only thing I did differently, was I applied a cold laser to his spine from skull to T1. I noticed an immediate difference in that his muscle spasticity in his left hand flexors relaxed. I didn't have to pry with all my strength to put his hand into extension.
• The secondary intern applied a subsequent treatment to the muscle belly of his left bicep, and immediately we were able to stretch it out into complete extension.
• With such great results after initial treatment, we proceeded to work on his chronically spastic and flexed hamstrings. The biceps femoris muscles were knotted and in myospasm. We applied laser to the muscle belly and were able to notice an immediate difference in the muscle tonicity. We were able to extend the patient's legs with much less effort than before.
• We're going to try the laser treatment for 3 subsequent treatments and measure pre and post extension ranges with a goniometer to collect an outcome assessment.