When You Spend Ten Years Worrying About The Health Of Your Child And Seemingly Overnight Those Concerns Are Taken Away There Just Isn't a Single Word To Describe The Feelilng

I am looking for the words to express my feelings for what AlignLife has done for my little girl. However, when you spend 10 years worrying about the health of your child and seemingly overnight those concerns are taken away there just isn’t a single word that can begin to describe the feeling.

Ten years ago, at the age of 5, my daughter began vomiting. We began our long journey of Doctors and test with our local pediatrician. He insisted that the problem was an irritated epiglottis and would go away on it’s own. After two weeks of no improvement I insisted that he refer her to a specialist. He sent us to a pediatric gastroenterologist in Urbana.

By this time she was vomiting, small amounts, literally more that a hundred times a day. Basically, it had become a constant thing. The Doctor in Urbana did some tests and offered several possibilities of what the diagnosis could be. He suggested the option of doing surgery which would make it impossible for her to vomit. Although this would eliminate the immediate problem of vomiting, it in no way was dealing with what was causing the problem and would actually create a new problem.

Doing this surgery would create a lifelong situation where she would be in the emergency room getting her stomach pumped every time she was sick or ate something that didn’t agree with her and vomiting was necessary. Needless to say, we refused the surgery. The Doctor did prescribe Reglan, which didn’t solve the problem but did help reduce the frequency of the vomiting. The Doctor assured me that there would be no adverse side effects of taking the Reglan. I later found out that long term use of this drug could cause permanent neurological problems. It was becoming increasing clear that we were getting nothing but band-aid fixes for the problem and were no closer to a clear diagnosis of the true cause much less a cure. Now that I knew of the possible problems with the Reglan I immediately took her off the drug and made an appointment for her at Mayo Clinic.

At Mayo she was examined by the head of Pediatric Gastroenterology as well as another Dr. on the gastroenterology staff. The diagnosis at Mayo was Rumination. Basically, rumination is a reflexive habit of vomiting. It was their belief that the amoxicillin she was taking at the time the vomiting started irritated her stomach to the place it caused vomiting and by continuing to take it she vomited enough that it became a reflexive habit of her stomach. Unfortunately, although we now had a diagnosis that actually made sense, there was no cure. They did teach her some relaxation techniques that helped relax the stomach muscle.

The exercises did help with the frequency of the vomiting but in no way eliminated it. By reducing the frequency of the vomiting the stomach aches became less severe and she no longer came home from school in tears and in pain. By this time she was seven years old and we had been spent countless hours researching and traveling to Doctors as well as thousands of dollars only to still have no cure.

She did feel somewhat better and was able to lead a normal day to day life but in the back of my mind was always the concern for her future. The constant vomiting was bound to cause problems down the road for her. The enamel on her teeth was already being weakened by the stomach acids and the day would inevitably come when the throat and esophagus, as well as other things would begin to show damage.

Then, after years of searching for an answer, and hopefully a solution, when we weren’t even looking, her problems were solved. She had a habit of cracking her back and a co-worker of mine was going to AlignLife at the time and was pleased with the care she was getting. I decided to take her to him to see if there was a problem with her back that was causing her to crack it all the time and to see what he would recommend to stop it. At her first exam he discovered a subluxation of the spine in the area where the nerves are that control digestion.

Dr. Esposito recommended a treatment plan that sounded promising. Although I must admit I was more than a little skeptical. After 10 years of Doctors and having taken her all the way to Mayo and still not having a cure it was a little hard to believe that a Chiropractor was going to solve the problem. But, despite my skepticism, how could I not at least try if there was any chance at all that he could help her?

I so desperately wanted my little girl healthy and he was offering us hope, something we hadn’t had in a very long time. I had no prior knowledge of chiropractic care for treatment of medical problems. I misguidedly believed that Chiropractors were to be seen for back pain – nothing else. So, trying to ignore my skepticism and clinging to hope, she began treatment.

The doctorsaid that we could expect to begin seeing some change in about 3 months. I was therefore surprised when one day after only 3 weeks my daughter came to me and said that she hadn’t vomited at all that day. Although we should have been jumping for joy we were both a little afraid to get our hopes up too high. She had occasionally had a single day without vomiting in the past. When the next day came and went with no vomiting we began to get a little excited. Not once in the almost 10 years since this problem began had she gone two days in a row without vomiting. Well, that 2 days has now turned into 3 months. The vomiting is gone and for the first time in almost 10 years I can look towards her future without concerns for her health.

Now, how do you adequately express your gratitude to someone for giving you child back their good health and for giving you, the parent that loves them, peace of mind? I have yet to find the words, but for lack of a better way to say it I will just say “Dr. Esposito, we thank you and will be eternally grateful to you for all you have done. My daughter’s future looks brighter because of you and your staff.