My husband, my chiropractor

I remember the day that Brian decided to become a Chiropractor. I was a student at MATC and we were in the library together, I remember that it was sunny out. He was getting ready to sign up for his second semester of college after taking a semester off. As we talked about what it was he might want to do with his life, I asked him, what about being a Chiropractor? We had been to see his earlier that day and somehow it just popped into my head. We started researching more about it and before we left the library that day he had decided that that was what he wanted to do. At that point we had NO clue how HARD it would be for him to achieve that goal. Shortly after this day Brian was diagnosed with a leaning disability, which explained a lot to him. Because of his learning disability it took him 10 years to complete his education. 5 years of undergrad, some for remedial courses so that he had a better foundation for his learning, and then the rest for his pre-requisites for Chiropractic school. Chiropractic school was supposed to be 3 1/3 years, 10 trimesters, well, Brian was on the 5 year plan. With his learning disability he could not carry a full load and succeed, so he had to take a reduced schedule. The day he walked across that stage was the PROUDEST day of my life. He walked across not only once, but twice. The first time he received his B.S., the second his Doctorate. It was amazing. He was amazing!

After working with another Chiropractor for just over a year, which didn't work out because of financial reasons, we decided to buy a building and start fresh. That was September of 2000. He would ride his bmx bike through the neighborhoods and deliver flyers. He joined the Chamber of Commerce (and ended up being the president for two years just before he was diagnosed with cancer) and joined the Lion's club. He worked at community events. He became a part of the community, became vested in the community. He loved being a Chiropractor, his patients meant the world to him. When he was diagnosed with cancer, we talked briefly about selling the clinic. We had been given no hope for his survival, and the time we were given was short. We decided that selling was not what we wanted to do, it felt like we would be giving in to the cancer. It wasn't easy in the beginning, but we were able to maintain thanks to a number of Doctors that were willing to step in and help keep the clinic running while Brian did his treatments. I will be forever grateful to those incredible Doctors who gave of themselves to help us.

I recently found Brian's journal, and in it he talked about how seeing patients made him happy.  For all practical purposes he stopped seeing patients in June of 2010.  He did go in on occasion to see one or two, but he was tired from his treatments and on most days it was too much for him.  I know he missed it.  Neither one of us ever really considered the fact that he wouldn't work again.  We fought to keep the clinic open so that he would have something to go back to when he got better.  I continued to work at the clinic and he pulled the strings from home.  One thing Brian never was was a quitter, and this was no different.  This was just one more place where his determination shone through.

I hope that as we face changes at the clinic that I am able to make Brian proud.  I hope that one day I will be as proud of my accomplishments as I was of his.  I hope that I am able to keep the dreams that we had together for our clinic alive and make them into a reality.  Being in the clinic is hard for me.  He is everywhere I look. I just have to imagine him smiling at me and telling me what a good job I am doing.  I know that he believed in me and I believe that he still does.......now, I just need to believe in myself.