EPISODE SUMMARY
Guest: Vicki Rush
Vicki Rush is married to Dr. Perry Rush, an upper cervical chiropractor specializing in the Blair Technique. For more than 20 years, she worked as her husband’s chiropractic assistant. She ran the office, he did the chiropractic, and it was a good balance. They were living in Spartanburg. Getting to see the miracles in people’s lives firsthand was incredible.
On their first date, Vicki told Dr. Rush about some health problems she had been experiencing and he taught her all about chiropractic. The next day she saw her medical doctor and told him she had been getting sick a lot with a sore throat and headaches. She had a long list of symptoms. She was diagnosed with a thyroid condition and told to see a specialist. She decided to try Upper Cervical first. She went to Dr. Gary Harbit on Dr. Rush’s advice. After one adjustment, the vertigo was gone, the swelling in her throat was gone, her voice came back, and she no longer had a headache.
One of Vicki’s favorite stories is about a little girl. Her mother brought her and her twin sister in for care. The twin sister got one adjustment. She was fine, she was happy, she was healthy, but the other girl was completely limp in her mother’s arms. Dr. Rush took some X-rays. When he looked at the pictures, he just said, “Oh my”. He gave her an adjustment, and changes started immediately. They were able to sit her up and talk to her. Within 2 days, she was playing on the playground at school. Later, she fell off of something and went completely limp again. After going to their regular doctor again without any change, they brought her back to Dr. Rush. He adjusted and she could move again. This happened over and over again.
When Vicki had her first son, he got sick with pneumonia-like symptoms. She didn’t get much sleep the first four months because he couldn’t breathe unless she was holding him up. They took him to Dr. Sherman Lyle, who showed Dr. Rush how to adjust a baby’s neck. After one adjustment, their baby was breathing normally. They all slept that night. The baby never had another problem.
Another story that Vicki recalls is about one of her own four children, a son who was about ten years old at the time. He had fallen asleep on a chair, and his head tipped off the edge of the chair. Vicki noticed that he had jerked in his sleep, and it didn't look good. She moved over to him, and I shook him a little, "Wake up. Wake up," and he didn't wake up. She realized he was completely stiff and unconscious. She called for her husband. He moved him to the floor and checked him. The position he had fallen asleep in had thrown him out of alignment. Dr. Rush immediately adjusted him, and his whole body relaxed, and he was fine. There were no repercussions.
Vicki didn’t give up her own dream along the way. She went to college online and became a professional genealogist. Now, she has been tracing family trees for more than 40 years.
Vicki had this to say about watching chiropractic from the sidelines, “Meeting people in the chiropractic community, you find joy, and you find happiness. When somebody becomes a chiropractor, they get to smile every day and they get to provide miracles for people everyday. Every week there was a new miracle to share with our chiropractic friend across town. Miracles, not just nice stories, but true life-changing events.”
To contact Ruth, go to https://www.blairclinic.com
ruth@blairclinic.com
https://www.facebook.com/rutelin
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome, welcome, welcome to What Pain in the Neck, the podcast. I'm sitting across the table from Vicki Rush and she's been kind enough to let me into her home. I just met her yesterday and she is the most welcoming, amazing person, and invited myself and my husband, Dr. Gordon Elder and Dr. Michael Linares and some other doctors into her home. We had lunch and we just had this incredible conversation. I just wanted to share some of the important things we talked about. Vicki, thank you so much for allowing me to be here and to have this talk with you.
Well, thank you. It's an honor to be here. It's an honor to have you here, Ruth. I have been on the sidelines of chiropractic since 1975.
That's about 20 years longer than me. What we have in common is we've just been in the background hearing the stories and providing a lot of support and not getting our stories out there, just doing most all the listening, so I so look forward to hearing your stories.
Oh, thank you. Well, a lot of my stories go around my family experiences that we've had together. Then for more than 20 years, I worked as Perry's chiropractic assistant in his office. I ran the office, he did the chiropractic, and it was a good balance.
When you say Perry, it's Dr. Perry Rush?
Dr. Perry Rush, Yes.
In Spartanburg, South Carolina?
Yes, for many years. He started practicing up in Philadelphia when he was working at the ADIO Institute of Chiropractic for Dr. Reggie Gold. He opened his first practice there and that's when I first started seeing, besides my own previous experience, I started seeing miracles in my friends, just one after another who would go to Perry. They needed chiropractic care and they would just come out so happy. It was an amazing experience. Then I started working for Perry when we moved to Spartanburg and getting to see them firsthand. Incredible.
Let's just hear some of those stories. Do you want to share some of those stories?
Oh, sure.
We'll do it the back row. We'll find out about your stories kind of towards the end, and you'll just tell some of the stories that are just on your heart.
Okay. Well, one of my favorite stories is about a little girl. Her mother brought her and her twin sister in for care. The twin sister got one adjustment. She was fine, she was happy, she was healthy, but the other girl was carried in as limp as a rag, just hung in her mother's arms. The mother helped to hold her still so that they could take a couple of x-rays. Perry practiced the Blair technique and it was very important to him to get very specific x-rays so he could give very specific adjustments. When he looked at the pictures, I always called the x-rays, the pictures.
Yes, that's fine.
He looked at the pictures and he just said, "Oh my." We helped hold the little girl on the table because she would roll off.
Wow. When you said limp, you really mean limp?
Very limp. He gave her an adjustment and immediately changes started happening. She started looking around. There was no pain involved, but she started looking around. We set her up so we could talk to her. Then her mother took her home. Within two days, she was playing on the playground at school.
Wow. I don't know that we said how old this girl was.
She was about eight years old. I think they had been in a car accident. This sweet little girl, her mother was told that she should not play on the jungle gym or get rough on the playground, but being a little girl and wanting to play, she fell off something and she immediately went back into this paralysis thing. Well, her mother had initially taken her to a medical doctor and they had diagnosed her with-- The name of this condition literally took an entire line on the piece of paper. I wrote it down. They had to spell it for me.
I don't even remember it, it was so long. Instead of bringing her directly back to see Dr. Rush, they took her back to the medical doctor. For a couple of months, he treated her with different kinds of things, and drugs, and of course, it didn't work, nothing worked. They finally carried her limp little self back in. Her sister got a post-check, she was great, but this sweet little girl just laid there.
The only thing she could move anything deliberately. She could move her fingers, but her arms would fall out of the air. Perry checked her, adjusted her, and within two days, she was running around playing again. Well, fast forward 10 years, she's been doing this scenario for 10 years. Each time that she had an episode, they would take her to the medical doctor and she wouldn't get well. It would take a couple of months of trial and error, and she just plain wouldn't get well.
Then they would bring her back to Perry, one adjustment, she's back to playing. Oh my goodness. When she was just past 18, she was engaged. Her fiancé carried, first, a wheelchair in, and then carried her in, and gently placed her in the wheelchair, and she was limp with her chin on her chest. I thought, "Let's talk woman to woman." I got crouched down on the floor because she couldn't lift her head.
I looked her in the eyes and I said, "So it's happened again?" She said, "Yes." I said, "You went to the doctor first, the medical doctor?" "Yes." "He treated you and gave you medicines?" "Yes." "It didn't work?" "No." "Nothing worked?" "No." "You're back here at Dr. Rush's office?" "Yes." I looked her in the eye and I said, "Next time I think I would come here first." She looked at me with these big puppy dog eyes and she said, "Yes."
[laughter]
Two days later, she came back for a post-check. She drove herself, she bounded up the stairs, happy, happy, happy. I said, welcome back. We checked her, then they got married and moved away. I'm hoping she found a very good chiropractor wherever they went.
That's incredible. Just for the record, I'm sure you're not saying that going to the medical doctor is bad, but in her case, the problem was a chiropractic problem.
Exactly.
If you have a chiropractic problem, you go see a chiropractor. If you have a medical problem, then you see a medical doctor. Then you go to the approach that's been proven to work for you, not the one that didn't work.
Yes. We all know times when a medical doctor has saved somebody's life.
I just wanted to be clear that that's not the message of this story.
That poor guy was out of his league. He did not know what to do to help this sweet girl. I have a family story, you want to hear it?
Yes, I do want to hear it.
One evening when our four children, we're all still at home, all young, one of our sons was about 10 years old. You know how kids are, they can sleep anywhere, and one of our boys fell asleep on a chair. His head tipped off the edge of the chair and I hadn't noticed it. I was sitting on the couch doing something with my hands, completely oblivious until my peripheral vision picked up that he had jerked in his sleep and it didn't look good. I looked at him and he jerked again. I moved over to him, and I shook him a little, "Wake up. Wake up," and he didn't wake up.
Oh, wow.
That's when I realized he was completely stiff and unconscious. Perry was on the telephone with somebody and, well, I did the motherly thing, "Perry, get off the phone." Perry comes running over, and I'm trying to pick our son up.
How old was he?
About 10. Obviously, way too big. I'm five feet tall, very small, could not lift him. He didn't relax. He was like a people pretzel, completely stiff. Perry lifted him, laid him gently on the floor, and checked him, and the position had thrown him out of alignment. Perry immediately palpated, adjusted, his whole body relaxed. Of course, by this time, one of the older children had called 911.
Oh. [laughs] Okay.
By the time the ambulance got here, the younger son who had been through this was laying on the floor, looking around, asking what had happened. He was fine. We laid him on the bed, and the ambulance people wanted to take him to the hospital, but we said, "No, we will watch him." I stayed up with him all night, just to be sure. He was fine. He was telling stories, I was telling him stories, until he finally fell into a deep restful sleep. There were no repercussions.
That's good.
He was just fine.
That's good. I want to switch directions a little bit. I want to find out a little bit more of the story of you, Vicki. I don't actually know how you met Dr. Rush. Obviously, he wasn't Dr. Rush at the time. Is that correct?
That's right. He was a chiropractic student.
You knew that you were going into a chiropractic life. He was a chiropractic student.
I did.
Will you tell us a little bit about that, and then also what your role has been? Dr. Rush is really kind of a legendary doctor within the Blair Chiropractic world. Another legendary doctor who was a leader and Dr. Blair's best friend, Dr. Muncy, really spoke very highly of Dr. Rush many, many times, and I've heard those stories, but as we know, behind every successful man, there's a woman, usually, that is supporting him. Why don't we hear some of that?
Well, through the years, I've gotten to know a lot of chiropractors. We were good friends with Reggie and Irene Gold, and with Thom and Betty Gelardi. Before that, I actually met Perry at church. I saw this guy, he was so cute, so I had my friend introduce me. Perry asked me out on a date, and on our first date, we spent 10 hours together. We went hiking up in the mountains, we had a picnic that got rained out, but for 4 of those 10 hours, he and his plastic spine taught me about chiropractic.
He brought his spine-
On our first date.
-on your first date. You knew what you signed up for. [laughs]
I sure did. When I said yes to his proposal, I knew the rest of my life would be helping him help people. I always wanted to live my life in a profession that brought joy to people. This was the perfect answer to that. On our first date, I told Perry about this health problem I'd been having. I just kept getting sick, just sick, sick, sick, headaches, and just throat would hurt. I had a long list of symptoms, and so he told me all about chiropractic.
Well, the next day, I went to see my medical doctor, because I kept losing my voice and my throat would swell up, and it felt very strange, didn't hurt. The doctor said, "You have a severe thyroid condition. You need to go to a specialist. You need to go right away," so he made me an appointment, which, of course, I didn't go to because I wanted to try chiropractic. I'd had a crash course in it the day before, [chuckles] so I called Perry.
Back then, now this is 1974, you do not call a boy. A woman did not call a man back then, but I had the perfect excuse, I had a need. I said, "Perry, can you find me the name of the best chiropractor in Greenville, South Carolina?" He went to Irene Gold, and called me back later and said, "I have a name for you." His name was Dr. Gary Harbit. One adjustment at Dr. Harbit's office, the vertigo was gone, the big swelling in my throat was gone, my voice came back, I didn't have a headache. It was miraculous.
The medical doctor called me the next day and said, "You didn't show up for your appointment." Oh, drat, I had forgot to call him. Forgotten to call the doctor and cancelled that. I said, "No, I didn't, but I don't need to go." He said, "Vicki, you have a serious health condition." I told him all about the adjustment and how good I felt, that my throat was no longer swollen, my voice was obviously back. He said, "No, I want you to stop by after work."
I stopped by his office after work, he palpated my throat, gone. There was no swelling. It was gone. He said, "This is a coincidence. You still need to go." I said, "I'm sorry, but I will not be going. I found the answer I need. This is my choice. I'm going to be going to a chiropractor from now on." He wasn't happy, but at least he had diagnosed the problem correctly. I did have a little trouble with my thyroid. Then after Perry and I got married, it was so wonderful. I used to help him study for his tests. We were married for the last like nine months. Yes, it was exactly nine months. Because I got pregnant right away, and carried our newborn baby to his graduation.
Oh, wow.
[laughter]
Then our little boy got really, really sick, like pneumonia symptoms.
Oh my, newborn?
Yes.
Oh, how scary.
It was terrifying. I didn't get any sleep for his first four months because he couldn't breathe. I had to sit up, and hold him up so he could breathe. We took him to Dr. Sherman, Lyle Sherman.
Wow. He is a legendary upper cervical doctor, for sure.
Yes, an amazing man. He showed Perry how to adjust this little four-month-old baby. One adjustment and the breathing was normal.
Wow.
He slept that night. Oh, so did I. It was wonderful. [chuckles] Our sweet little boy got healthier and healthier, and never had that problem again.
That's incredible.
Yes. I've been watching miracle after miracle in our own family, in watching his patients, hearing miracles. There's a chiropractor here in town who is just a wonderful man, and they get together and they discuss their miracle cases. I got to be there to see them.
Yes. Isn't that great to hear?
Yes. Twice we had babies come in who were several months old who had never had a bowel movement. It is the funniest thing to get a phone call that evening from a hysterical mother, who's laughing and crying and saying, "I just changed the first poopy diaper."
[laughter]
Yes, pooping is pretty important.
Yes. It is.
Once again, I would like to change directions a little bit to get a more full picture of everything that you've contributed to in the healing profession.
I see.
One of the things I asked your husband about was kind of some of the sacrifices that he had made, because he wanted to be a full-time doctor and take care of patients all the time. It's almost like there was another purpose for him and he gave up part of his dream to teach other doctors to be chiropractors because somebody had to do it.
Yes.
How did you feel about all that? Can you describe from your perspective what happened and what did that do to you and your family? Just can you tell that story?
Sure. One of the things was the financial challenge. Teaching at the colleges that he taught at did not pay as well as having your own practice and taking care of patients.
Yes. In fact, it didn't just pay as well.
No. It sure didn't.
Almost nothing, right? Basically.
Yes. I remember telling one of our sons that he couldn't join the baseball team because we didn't have the money for the uniform, and it cost something like $35 for a fee to join and we didn't have it. It was little things like that all through their growing up years.
How does your family feel about that?
The fact that chiropractic was such a miracle thing in our lives. When they became old enough and mature enough to realize what they were sacrificing for, they were all glad. It was when they were younger that it was harder, and sometimes I had to leave them with babysitters to help Perry in his practice. That was difficult. All of that was hard. When it was time and we realized we needed a home of our own. Four little children, we needed a home, and we didn't have the money to start. Then at Sherman College, they asked him to teach this special course for several semesters and the extra money paid all the money that we needed to get into our own home.
That's good.
Yes. We got married in 1975. In 1984, we built the home we're living in now.
Where we're talking right now.
Yes, in Boiling Springs.
Yes. It's great. It feels very homey.
It was a wonderful place to raise our children. We had a great big garden, and I learned how to can, and freeze, and dehydrate. That saves us so much money, and I learned how to be a do-it-yourselfer. If something needed painted, I painted it. If we needed new curtains, I learned how to sew and made all our curtains. Just everything like that, and it became fun for me and a challenge. I was looking at my ceiling one day, it was one of those popcorn ceilings and I decided this will not do, and I scraped all the ceilings.
I see no popcorn ceiling.
No. A lot of do-it-yourself and it was fun. I went to college online and became a professional genealogist, and so I do that. I have 40-some years of tracing people's family trees for them. That was my dream to learn how to trace family trees, so I was able to fulfill that from home.
You didn't 100% gave up your own dream.
I didn't.
You said something earlier when you said you knew you wanted to do something that made other people or gave other people joy, but what about your own happiness?
What about my what?
Your own happiness. You said you wanted [crosstalk]
That's it. Watching my children grow and be healthy. We avoided things like-- I don't know if you talk about things like vaccinations and stuff. We avoided things like that. We ate very healthy. I'm not saying we didn't eat ice cream.
[laughs] You ate ice cream. I know that for a fact. I've heard more mentions of ice cream in the last two days with your family than almost any other family I've been in.
It was so funny. We were living in Reggie Gold's old house. We were renting that home, and they didn't have a working heater, so we had a wood stove and Perry-- It was the funniest thing to see him go through these steps. He would setup the homemade ice cream churn, and we had two. Four kids, people visiting all the time, and he would get two churns of ice cream going. Then he would stoke up the stove, blazing hot woodstove in the middle of the living room. When the kids would see this happening, they would start coming, waiting for the churn to stop.
Perry would drag a chair over near the wood stove and fill up a bowl with, no kidding, two quartz of ice cream in his bowl alone. All of the kids would have their little cups of ice cream, and we would all gather in the living room and laugh. I use to tell stories, and I still in our family is famous for making up stories. All the grandkids listen to grandma's made up stories too. I would tell stories or I read all of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and the Lord of the Rings, and the Hobbit. I read all of these books to our little kids, so they grew up with these wonderful stories. Whenever there was illness or injury, the first thing we did was dad would check them.
Yes. Same in my family.
Yes. It was just wonderful, a wonderful way to raise children.
Is there anything you would like to tell that I haven't asked you?
The only thing that I can say is that watching chiropractic from the sidelines has been an exciting adventure and meeting people, one person after another through this adventure that we've been through together, I think we've been married 46 years now, it's a lot. 47, somewhere around in there. Meeting people in the chiropractic community, you find joy and you find happiness. When somebody becomes a chiropractor, they get to smile everyday and they get to provide miracles for people everyday. Every week there was a new miracle to share with our chiropractic friend across town. Miracles, not just nice stories, but true life-changing events.
Yes, and you can really watch the transformation, right?
Yes.
In the office, people come in and there's almost like a cloud over their face. You can see worry and pain. Then at some point, there's vibrant life and fireworks in the eyes. People are becoming who they're supposed to be.
I have one last story for you.
Okay. Go.
I have a friend. I have known here since 1974. She got married and they had a little boy, and then they went 10 years without children. Meanwhile, her twin sister had eight children in a row.
Oh, my goodness.
I spoke to my friend and I said, "I think you should come and see Perry." She said, "Vicky, I don't have any back pain." "Oh, my goodness. My sweet friend, that's not what chiropractic is about." She came to Perry. She gets her first adjustment and I took her aside and I said, "I need to speak to you very personally for a minute. Very candidly, you haven't had children for 10 years." "That's right." "If you don't want to have any more children, you need to do something about it because you're under chiropractic care now." She said, "Oh, Vicky, the doctors says I'm in early menopause. I don't have to worry-- Besides, I'm not worried about that. If I got pregnant, I would be thrilled I said, "Hang on to your hat.
Okay. [laughter]
A few weeks later, I dreamed about her. I dreamed that she had had a child. I called her and I said, "How are you feeling these days?" She said, "Great." "Why?" "Because I dreamed about you. I dreamed you had a baby." She said, "Well, that's really great, but I'm not pregnant." "Okay." Less than a week later, she called and she said, "You know that dream you had about me?" "Yes." "Was the baby a boy or a girl?"
[laughter]
That's funny
I said, "What I saw in my dream was the doctor presenting your baby to you. I did not see the gender." She said, "Guess I'll have to wait about eight months then."
[laughter]
She had three children in a row after that.
Wow, three.
Yay, chiropractic.
So much for early menopause.
[laughter]
The stories go on and on.
They do.
I want to thank you on multiple fronts. Thank you so much for letting me invade your home today and record, not just this interview, but also speak to your husband and another doctor in your home. We just met yesterday.
I know, so fun.
Yes, and thank you for these wonderful stories.
It's an honor.
One last thing. Do you have a life verse or a favorite quote that helps you from day to day?
Yes, it's a scripture. It's peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world give I unto you, therefore, let not your heart be afraid. I paraphrased because I teared up, but that is my favorite. Chiropractic is one of those things that give peace, and so does my savior.
[00:32:17] [END OF AUDIO]