The first time I really learned about chiropractic was when I applied for a job at Algarve Quiroprática. I had seen the advertisement and heard some people talking, but to be honest I didn’t really know much about it.
I did some research to be prepared for the interview, but I think the beginning of my journey only truly started with the explanations of Dr Sandra and Dr Christophe.
My doctors gave me some books with stories of patients who improved from their problems with regular treatments, some faster, others taking a little bit longer, because every case is different and every body has its own healing time.
I was a little sceptical at first. Could they really help people with such diverse symptoms? Why was having a healthy spine so important?
When I began working at Algarve Quiroprática, I too became a patient. I had suffered a really bad car accident nine years ago. I was in a hospital bed for two months and in a wheelchair for six more months, followed by intense physiotherapy for three years and was left with several disabilities.
You get used to not being able to do certain things. A few months of chiropractic treatments later, I was doing things I hadn’t done in nine years and had accepted I would never do again, such as bending to my three-year-old nephew’s height or kneeling. My next goal is to ride a bike again. I have never felt stronger and healthier.
It’s now been almost a year since I became a chiropractic assistant. It’s a wonderful feeling being part of a team that helps so many people.
There are many stories I could tell you, but one that I will always remember is that of an 82-year-old patient who took a nasty fall. He was in so much pain his daughter asked me if we had a wheelchair to get him inside the clinic because he had difficulty walking. He had been to the hospital and doctors told him it was normal he was like that, and at his age he would take a long time to recover.
With just a few sessions he improved immensely, and the last time I spoke with his daughter he was riding his bike again.
One difficult part of my work is helping the doctors show our patients the importance of regular adjustments. It’s still a strange concept, even to our patients who recognise they have improved a lot since they began being adjusted, that you have to take care of your spine regularly.
If you don’t, your problems can come back, getting worse over time. It’s like taking care of your teeth; you shouldn’t just go to the dentist when you have a tooth ache because it could be too late to save it.
Watching the age range of our patients, from just a few days old to over 90, you can really appreciate how much being adjusted improves your quality of life.
And my feeling, after I see another successful case with a patient that can have such diverse symptoms, from the usual back pain to vertigo, or from difficulties in getting pregnant to baby colics, is: why didn’t I learn about chiropractic before?
Algarve Quiroprática clinic: EN125 in Pêra
282 312 853 | 969 397 375
