EPISODE SUMMARY
Guest: Chezla Hagood
A few years ago Chezla was a young mom suffering from really bad neck pain, headaches, and a burning pain between her shoulder blades caused by a bulging disc in her neck. During this same time period, she was diagnosed with Lupus. She struggled with daily activities and caring for her young child. She had gone to the doctor several different times and wasn't getting any relief, and it just kept getting worse. She hadn’t had any specific accident or injury that caused this to happen but was an athlete growing up, so there were multiple sports injuries throughout the years. She had tried muscle relaxers, pain medicines, and eventually physical therapy.
Chezla’s husband, Brandon, met Ruth Elder through a business referral group. By this time, she had suffered from the pain for 3 or 4 years and had had her second child. She called and set up a screening appointment at the Blair Chiropractic Clinic, where Dr. Elder ran a few tests and determined that he could help her. A few days later, she had her first adjustment and wondered if the doctor had done anything since she could barely feel the adjustment and didn’t feel immediate relief. Within the first week or two, she started noticing small changes. The headaches were subsiding, and the stiffness was improving. Now, four years later, Chezla is feeling great and very seldom has any issues with her neck. In fact, she has only had one neck adjustment in those four years.
Chezla’s 14-year-old daughter, Kinzie, is now a patient after suffering a concussion at school two years ago after being hit in the head. She had a headache for the first several days that wouldn’t go away. Chezla waited three days to take Kinzie to the doctor, thinking it wasn’t serious because Kinzie hadn’t lost consciousness or anything. Chezla wishes she had known to get Kinzie into upper cervical care when it first happened. Kinzie did have a misalignment. Her recovery since the first adjustment has been more accelerated than Chezla’s, mostly due to her being younger.
Chezla also started bringing her son, Luke, in to get checked. He had some issues as a baby with his hips popping in and out. He hasn’t had to have any adjustments but loves coming into the office and playing in the kid's area before he gets checked.
Chezla’s mom had been having all kinds of issues for a while. She actually had fallen and hurt her neck. She's had fibromyalgia pain, all sorts of injuries and pain, so then she started seeing Dr. Elder. Now, she's doing a whole lot better too.
Chezla now works as a Chiropractic Assistant at the Blair Chiropractic Clinic. She enjoys seeing the changes in people as they heal. She has this advice for other moms in her situation, “ I would probably say if you have any kind of problems like I had, a neck pain, back pain, anything like bulging disc like I had, anything to do with the neck that's bothering you, definitely get help sooner rather than later because I didn't know any better. I had been dealing with it for years. I wish I had known sooner. I would've gotten help. Then also, as far as your kids go, I wish I had known to get the kids checked sooner.”
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Ruth Elder: Welcome, welcome, welcome to What Pain in the Neck? the podcast. I am so happy with this person sitting in front of me today. Chezla.
Chezla Hagood: Hello.
Ruth: Hi, Chezla. Why don't you tell us your full name?
Chezla: I'm Chezla Hagood.
Ruth: Yes, and we have known each other for four years?
Chezla: Yes, just about.
Ruth: Just about four years. Why don't you tell our listeners how we met?
Chezla: Well, I was having really bad neck pain. I had a bulging disc in my neck and Brandon, my husband, met you through Better Business Bureau, I think it was.
Ruth: It was actually a business referral group. The way the business referral groups work is there's one member per industry. Like, for instance, we were the chiropractor in the group. That meant no other chiropractors could be a part of the group. In your husband's case, he was representing a hotel. He was the only hotel and then there was insurance people and plumbers and roofers and things like that. Before we get any further, I feel like this is pretty brave. Here, you're having this intense pain and your husband says, "Well, somebody I met in this business group thinks they can help you." What did you think?
Chezla: Well, I was actually pretty excited because it had been going on for so long. By that point, I was willing really to try anything. [laughs]
Ruth: You said how long?
Chezla: It had probably been going on three or four years by that point.
Ruth: What started it?
Chezla: I was having pain in my neck. I had pain between my shoulder blades, my upper back, and I had gone to the doctor several different times and just wasn't getting any relief and it just kept getting worse.
Ruth: Can you think of an incident that started it all?
Chezla: Not a specific incident. I was an athlete growing up, so I played pretty hard with every sport that I was in. I'm sure there were times that I had falls or other injuries.
Ruth: Yes, I'm sure. Knowing you, you do everything with your whole heart. [laughs] Also, I want to grab a hold of-- you had sought out several doctors. What kind of help did you get?
Chezla: Mostly medication, muscle relaxers, pain medicines. Eventually, when nothing seemed to work, they sent me to physical therapy for a while. I did that probably a good six months and then continued it at home but didn't have any relief from it.
Ruth: Wow. Meanwhile, you were a mother of two very active children.
Chezla: At the time, just one in the beginning. Then later on when we had our second, that made things even more difficult having a baby and then a toddler running around. [laughs]
Ruth: Talk to us, what was that like dealing with that and the kind of pain that you had? What was your life like?
Chezla: It was pretty miserable at first while I was working before I had my second child. Just everything at work was hard to do. I worked in a shoe store, so reaching up to the top shelf and sometimes having to pull down six or seven shoe boxes at a time would cause a lot of pain.
Ruth: If you have neck pain and bulging disc and you have to do a lot of reaching overhead, that's pretty tough. That's probably the worst action.
Chezla: I discovered that pretty quickly and tried to avoid it.
Ruth: Then you had pregnancies with this pain. What did that do to it?
Chezla: It kind of exacerbated it, made it worse. Just carrying the extra weight mainly. [laughs]
Ruth: Yes, that's true. A lot of times, people think that weight, whether it's pregnancy-related or some of us just sometimes can get a little fluffy, whether it's one or the other, think that that causes pain. It's more accurate, what you said. It exasperate the problem. If you have a problem and you put more weight on it, it makes it worse.
Chezla: Well, also during this time too, I was actually dealing with joint pain and some other things. I actually was diagnosed with lupus, which I don't think that I have. Since coming here has subsided any of those problems that I was having with that.
Ruth: Wow, that's amazing. I'm finding all this stuff out. I thought I knew you pretty well. That's a perfect segue right there. We know the before. Mother of two young children trying to get by. Meanwhile, your body wasn't working, right? Then Brandon, your husband, said, "Go try this guy." You were brave enough to do it, so what was that process like?
Chezla: Well, it was pretty easy. Basically, I called you guys and y'all were friendly from the get-go, and so set up an appointment, came in for a screening, and everything just fell into place after that. Really, since the first adjustment, I had seen improvements.
Ruth: You came in and set up a screening, so what was that like?
Chezla: It was really easy. Dr. Elder's really good at walking you through the process and explaining everything really well. Just some basics. They take your weight and just some basic information from you, find out everything that's bothering you, and mainly just chit-chat for a little while and-
Ruth: -and ran some neurological tests, right?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: Then he said, "I found a problem that I think I can help with"?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: At that time, I think you had to actually go to a dentist's office to get a CT scan?
Chezla: Yes. [chuckles]
Ruth: Now, we don't have to do that. Then describe the first adjustment.
Chezla: I actually didn't even feel it. I kind of wondered when I left here if Dr. Elder had even done anything-
[laughter]
Chezla: -because I didn't feel any different right at first and didn't feel the actual adjustment at all.
Ruth: Then you did say you fairly quickly--
Chezla: I would say within the first week or two, I started noticing some small differences.
Ruth: Okay, so small differences. Tell me what you noticed at first.
Chezla: I had been having a few headaches also along with the pain and the headaches seemed to subside first and then I noticed some of the stiffness starting to go away.
Ruth: It's interesting that you said that. It seems like the newer symptoms were the ones that went away first. It's a process like your brain does a little triage in healing and decides what goes first. Something that I wanted to talk about is how difficult or easy was the process for you, and you had maybe a three-year-old?
Chezla: Yes, he was about three when I first started.
Ruth: What was that like? Was it time-consuming, difficult, babysitting, all of that?
Chezla: No, you were really good about watching Luke and keeping him entertained while I was in there with Dr. Elder.
Ruth: He was really easy to love, but we really do love having kids around. Then the checkups are not cumbersome or difficult.
Chezla: No, they don't take very long.
Ruth: It's easy to bring the family to a checkup or the kids as need be. Describe what the healing process was like after the first few weeks.
Chezla: I would say probably within the first three or four months, I noticed big changes. The burning sensation that I was having between my shoulder blades from the bulging disc, that started lessening. The stiffness, like I said, was going away. The pain was becoming less severe. Most of that, I noticed within the first three to four months.
Ruth: During the first three to four months, how many adjustments did you need?
Chezla: Just one.
Ruth: Just one?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: That's cool. One of the things that I wish our listeners could see actually is your smile right now. That was every single time you came in for checkups. I just remember this awesome smile and you're smiling.
Chezla: [laughs] Yes, I smile quite a bit, but it helps whenever you're feeling better. [laughs]
Ruth: You got that right away, and yet here we are four years later. You're stuck with us for quite a while.
Chezla: Yes, it works. [chuckles]
Ruth: What motivated you to come in? You came in for checkups and he didn't do anything and he didn't do anything and he didn't do anything. Each time you came in for a checkup, saying it's still in alignment, it's still in alignment, it's still in alignment, so no adjustment needed. What kept you coming back?
Chezla: I think I trusted Dr. Elder's judgment and knew that basically like he had said, you have to keep coming to keep seeing the progress. I just trusted that and kept coming.
Ruth: Yes, so it's the process of being in alignment. How do you know if you're in alignment if you don't get it checked?
Chezla: That's right.
Ruth: That's what we want. Now, it's four years later. How many adjustments have you had?
Chezla: One.
Ruth: Still one?
Chezla: Still one.
Ruth: That is cool. It's not a record, but if you keep that up times three, you are getting up there.
Chezla: Yes.
[laughter]
Ruth: I think the longest I've heard about is, I think, 11 years that I know of for sure-
Chezla: Wow.
Ruth: -that has been having regular checkups so that we know that that is the record. It's not just that it was that long since they were last checked or something. Hopefully, you can beat that record.
Chezla: I hope so.
Ruth: Actually, this is a little outside what I had planned, but are you still noticing changes?
Chezla: Not too much. I feel great now. Every now and then, I'll wake up with a crick in my neck or something. After a couple of days, it's gone. Dr. Elder might check it for me. Other than that, I feel great.
Ruth: Great. Then somewhere along the line, you started thinking about your kids. Just in the last few months, we've started to see several more of your family members. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that process?
Chezla: My daughter, Kinzie, she's 14 now, but when she was in the sixth grade, she had a concussion that she got at school. She had gotten hit in the head with something. I didn't even think about it for a while that she should get checked. I didn't know any better.
Ruth: Actually, that is my main motivation between this podcast as a whole, but also with this interview with you today. I want people who like you that's a mom that's struggling to get help, but I feel so grief-stricken. I failed you. I failed Kinzie. Here she was suffering because she had a concussion two years ago. Meanwhile, you were coming to our clinic for checkups. You didn't know that we could help her with her concussion symptoms on the fact that she was suffering. Probably had to do with when she got the concussion, she also injured her neck. I failed you.
Chezla: I wouldn't say that.
Ruth: I failed her. I want to set it right. As a mom, you can brag about Kinzie all you want. That's appropriate for this podcast. Before that, for two years, she was suffering. Why don't you talk a little bit about what you noticed and what you wish you had known that you now know and that you want our listeners to know?
Chezla: Right. Yes, she had been having some headaches because of the concussion. Actually, I didn't even know she had a concussion right at first. I waited three days to even take her to the doctor after the injury.
Ruth: Actually, that's very common. A lot of people think that when you have a concussion, you lose consciousness. That's not true. The majority of people who have a concussion, the people don't know.
Chezla: Then after I had taken her to the doctor, I found out she had a concussion. Then I noticed between then and now that she's had several other injuries that she may not have even had that I had seen here.
Ruth: What kind of lifestyle is she in?
Chezla: She is very athletic. She does karate. She's a black belt in karate. She plays several sports at school and does theater, so she has no time for anything. [chuckles]
Ruth: Tell us a little bit about how did the concussion happen and then describe what she was going through right after. Then it was a couple of years before you brought her here, right?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: Why don't you describe what happened and then what you noticed, what her process was during those two years, and then what has happened since she started here?
Chezla: Okay, so she actually got hit in the head at school. A boy in her class hit her in the head.
Ruth: Oh no.
Chezla: Yes, it was with a metal stand that they use in a robotics class. He hit her on the head and it was just so hard obviously that it caused a concussion.
Ruth: Wow. For some reason, I thought it was sports that did it.
Chezla: No.
Ruth: This is terrible. It's like violence.
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: Oh, my goodness.
Chezla: That was a whole ordeal to go through. Then like I said, she was having the headaches. They seemed to get better after the first couple of weeks and then she would still get them occasionally. I would say, just the typical injuries after that, she would seem to sprain her ankles a lot and her knees would bother her. She has Achilles problems, ankle problems.
Ruth: All of that happened after she hit her head?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: It wasn't like that before?
Chezla: No.
Ruth: It's that alignment is pretty crucial. Okay, so what was it that clued you in that this was a good idea to bring her here?
Chezla: Well, I had been talking to you guys about it, I think, at one of my appointments and then you mentioned that y'all could see kids. You do checkups on kids or screenings for free on kids. I decided, "Well, why not have her checked?" I should have done that a long time ago.
Ruth: Okay, so then it turned out that there was a problem in her neck. Describe how that's been like for her that's similar and different to the process that you went through in your healing process.
Chezla: I think for her, it was probably a lot easier than my process because, first of all, I'm older, but also I don't think her problem was maybe as severe because it hadn't gone on as long. Once she started coming in, her first adjustment, she kind of thought the same thing that I did. She was like, "Did he even do anything, Mom?"
[laughter]
Ruth: I love that.
Chezla: I had to explain it to her a little bit.
Ruth: No popping, twisting, or jerking?
Chezla: Yes, and then, of course, she didn't have to come in as often for checkups as I did being younger.
Ruth: It's easier because, for kids, two things like you said. The injury hasn't been there as long and also because they're still growing. Their bones are softer and their muscles and ligaments are not fully formed yet. The healing process just becomes part of the natural growing process because they're already growing. It's fun to take care of kids. Also, we're really passionate about that because I just know if this had been available to me as a kid and my parents knew about it, which neither one of those were true. Even if they did know, it wouldn't have been possible. I just know the whole trajectory of my life would be different if I had been checked as a kid. Important note. We check kids for free because it's fun, it's easy, and it's so effective, right?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: Okay, and then I really don't take that lightly. Here you are as a mom and you bring in the people that you care about most. It's very humbling actually. There's someone else in your life that you referred?
Chezla: There is. My mom. [laughs]
Ruth: Okay, so why don't you tell us about that?
Chezla: Okay, so my mom has been having all kinds of issues for a while. She actually had fallen and hurt her neck. She's had fibromyalgia pain, all sorts of just injuries and just pain, and then she started seeing you guys. Now, she's doing a whole lot better too.
Ruth: That's great. The two people that basically are closest to you. That's good. At the beginning, we talked about little Luke, who's not three years old anymore, but he's been checked quite a few times.
Chezla: He has. He actually, when he was a baby, was having some hip issues where his hip was popping in and out a lot. We had seen doctors for that even. Then, eventually, I had Dr. Elder checked him and everything turned out fine. He hasn't had any misalignments or anything, but now we're getting him checked a little more frequently every six months.
[laughter]
Ruth: He's on a schedule?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: Every six months, so everything is hopping along fine, right?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: That actually is the other thing that's really fun about kids is, more often than not, they are in alignment. That's another reason why we can offer those screenings complimentary because it's just quick and easy and really fun and it makes such a difference.
Chezla: He's the typical six-year-old, so he's always falling off of the monkey bars or falling down, running into things. [laughs]
Ruth: Because their bones and tissues are more pliable, kids are resilient that way. Sometimes it's actually been baffling to me through the years why kids can be like that and be okay. Then, all of a sudden, there's one bang that doesn't seem to be necessarily different from the others. That's the one that got stuck and that starts to wreak havoc, which is why I think it's really important that kids get checked regularly as just part of child health care.
Chezla: Yes, I agree.
Ruth: Now, we're going to switch gears because, Chezla, we've mentioned your smile. You had really good results and you stuck with your recommendations the doctor gave and recommended your family. You wrote a Google review for us. You were like our number one fan on Facebook. Our practice has been growing and we needed some help, so guess what? I called you up and said, "Do you want the job?" Because we really, really felt like you would be such an asset to the Blair clinic team. You've been here for a little couple of months now, maybe three months almost?
Chezla: Pretty close.
Ruth: It turned out I was right because you are really great with our patients and you care about people. You greet them with a smile. You make people feel welcome, and so it's just a really good fit. What did you think when I called you?
Chezla: I was a little shocked at first. [laughs] It's been a little while since I've worked anywhere. Like I said, I worked in a shoe store for 14 years.
Ruth: Yes, we're not a shoe store. [chuckles]
Chezla: Yes, and then took some time off after I had Luke. I was a little surprised at first, but I really wanted to take the job mainly to watch other people have the same experience that I had. Sometimes people, when they come in, they may not feel good. They may not be as cheerful as they normally would, but then I like to see the progress that they make, and then they all start coming in with a smile on their face once they start feeling better.
Ruth: I actually agree with all of that. It has been my experience too. I basically had your job when I first started 27 years ago of being an assistant. Just seeing the transformation after I was starting to heal myself was just incredible. Do you have any transformation stories without mentioning any names or anything that can be recognizable that you can share? I'm putting you on the spot. I know.
Chezla: You are putting me on the spot. I'm trying to think. I think I've seen several patients that have had pretty debilitating like headaches. I've noticed several people that their headaches have lessened.
Ruth: Yes, it's very effective for headaches. That's what stands out to you most?
Chezla: I think so.
Ruth: I think also the headaches are really recognizable. You can really see it. Do you feel that way?
Chezla: Yes.
Ruth: There's a real big change that happens to people's face and mood. People come in. I've heard it described as headache ice. It's more than just ice. It's almost like a cloud that covers your whole face. All of a sudden, you come in and there's sunshine and fireworks coming out of the ice.
[laughter]
Ruth: Right?
Chezla: That's true.
Ruth: Chezla, what advice would you tell moms that are in a similar situation to you that are just trying to be the best possible mom and struggle with pain?
Chezla: I would probably say if you have any kind of problems like I had, a neck pain, back pain, anything like bulging disc like I had, anything to do with the neck that's bothering you, definitely get help sooner rather than later because I didn't know any better. I had been dealing with it for years. I wish I had known sooner. I would've gotten help. Then also, as far as your kids go, I wish I had known to get the kids checked sooner.
Ruth: That's the whole purpose of doing this interview today. Both of those things, super profound. It's like we don't have to suffer.
Chezla: No.
[laughter]
Ruth: I ask every person that comes on here if they have a favorite quote or life first or something like that that they live by.
Chezla: The only thing that I can think of is my granddad used to always tell me that practice makes perfect. That can go for all different kinds of things, whether it's sports as a kid or just anything in life. If you practice at it, then you're going to get better.
Ruth: Okay, that's great.
Chezla: Yes. [chuckles]
Ruth: Thank you.
Chezla: You're welcome.
Ruth: Chezla, I so appreciate your time and your openness and your willingness to share with us.
Chezla: Thank you for having me.
Ruth: Yes.