Drs. Tania Howard
& Marissa Wallie
Family Chiropractors
530 College Parkway, Suite F
Annapolis, MD 21401
401-349-2727
First
Person Singular:
Tania Howard
Chiropractor, Annapolis
interview by Patricia E. Dempsey
This article was originally published in the February 15, 2004 issue of The
Washington Post Magazine
Pain is the smoke alarm. Sometimes I see a patient come in, standing at the desk. I see his pain from across the room. His eyes are flat, worry lines crease his forehead. There's a sense of desperation. There's no hiding it when you're in pain. Pain is etched on his face. These are the patients that tell me they want me to "fix it." Fix their pain. It's affecting everything in their lives. They can't be intimate with their spouses, can't do the cooking they love. They say to me, "I have nowhere else to turn."
So often the ones who are in really bad shape are men -- it's a last resort to come to me. Women come in and say, "Oh, I have a twinge. Can you help me take care of it?" But the men, they're at the end of their rope. They're on Motrin, the maximum dosage. They're petrified of surgery. I sit down with them and touch their hand. I tell them, "I don't know if I can help you, but I'll see you through this." So many of my patients begin to cry -- no one has ever touched them like that, no one takes their pain seriously, really listens to them. The pain, it's all consuming.
I don't deal with pain well at all. Frankly, it's headaches that get to me. When I get a headache, my world grinds to a stop. So when I see that in a patient's eyes, I want to help them manage it, avoid it if they can, understand it, even. It's not about me. I'm the vessel, an instrument, the body mechanic.
I have patients who are facing bankruptcy, or they hate their spouse -- they don't know how to address this. Or they might just simply need to drink more water. They're all under great stress. "Tell me about it," I'll say to my patients. "I want to know the big picture."