Pioneering a new field presents many lessons to be learned.
A mother, who is also a provider, brought her clubfoot baby for a check-up visit. She felt that he had slipped from his terrific overall health gains from earlier in the year.
The first thing I do on a check-up visit is to measure the brain cycle, the expansion and contraction of the brain. He was at 80 seconds, a severe drop from the 390-second cycle on his last visit. Mom, palpating the same 80 seconds before the visit, asked, “What happened?”
His clubfoot was fine. When I checked the other “good” foot, that ankle had a severe strain going up into his chest, neck, and head.
When I originally checked him as a new patient, that foot was quiet. I then spent all of my time in therapy on his clubfoot.
When I dismissed him, either I did not check that “good” foot carefully or I did without finding any strain. His mother also just worked on the clubfoot at home.
I have found that the body focuses on healing its most pressing area. When that corrects, another part of the body may then surface in the traumatic onion that needs attention. I missed that opportunity.
Probably both feet were strained in utero with one presenting as clubfoot and the other as severe hidden strain. I casually assumed that the “good” foot was fine at the end of therapy.
I need to remind myself of the many layers of the onion. When one major trauma clears, another can surface. That “good” foot strain was always present, but the body could not address it at that time.
After I did therapy on that ankle, his brain cycle returned to his original 390 seconds. Mom said later that he was much more comfortable in his body.
The brain cycle is a relative, not an absolute, measurement. If a patient goes from zero to 80 seconds, s(he) may feel a renewed sense of life. But if it drops from 390 seconds where the body is functioning at a high level for an extended period of time to that same 80 seconds, another patient can feel “very off.”
At 77, I am still learning every day. As soon as I find an answer to one problem, more questions arise. I love this work.
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