Paying Attention
by Will Forrester
I had been seeing Dr. Ranicki for a couple of months and had already begun to experience pretty significant improvement. And of course I was loving coming for my regular adjustments. I would share with my family the health and wellness related info I would learn from Dr. Ranicki, and finally I began to drag my family along to see Dr. Ranicki and see what all the fuss was about.
At the time my youngest daughter was not really crawling yet, and definitely not walking. She was approaching ten months old at the time. Rather than crawl, she had found a way of moving across the floor that I can only describe as bizarre. Since birth my daughter had nearly 360 degree rotation in her hip sockets. In other words, her legs appeared to be really, really flexible! It was not unusual for her to sit in a manner that she was sitting doing “a split.” And rather than doing traditional crawling, she would move herself forward not on her knees but by moving herself forward, doing a split, then bring her legs forward, then doing another split. It’s hard to explain. It was like she was doing the breaststroke, but with her legs. She could bring them completely forward then pull her body up. It looked strange.
She had seen more than one quality pediatrician since birth, and all had noticed and remarked on how flexible she was in her hips. And the comment that everyone would always make was, “She’ll make a great ballerina one day!”
When we would come see Dr. Ranicki, usually my daughter would just stay in her carrier or in one of our arms, but one day we put her down on the floor and she proceeded to do her strange hip crawl thingie. I will never forget the look on Dr. Ranicki’s face when he saw her do it. He was shocked.
“What is that?” he asked.
“Oh yeah, she’s really flexible! I guess she’ll be a great ballerina one day!” we rattled off our usual comments.
But I could clearly see Dr. Ranicki was concerned. He explained that was she was doing was not normal, and to be so “flexible” was actually not a good thing at all. He asked if we minded if he checked her out. I can’t remember just what he did as he began to examine her, but he was very quickly able to see that she had some serious hip problems that, if not corrected, could seriously affect her ability to crawl and walk normally.
He had our attention.
Then Dr. Ranicki laid even more bad news on us. He explained that crawling is one of the first developmental milestones which is critical for brain development, because it requires both hemispheres of the brain to work in tandem, the right side of the brain causing the left arms and legs to move, while the left brain causing the right arms and legs to move. He had my wife and I hold our daughters arms and legs as she lay on her back. Then he asked us to simulate what crawling would look like. I would bring one leg up while holding the other leg straight, and my wife would do the same with her arms.
It was amazing. As we “forced” our daughter to do crawling motions while lying on her back, I could feel her muscles resist these basic movements, because her brain was having trouble making her arms and legs work the way they need to in order to crawl. I could see what Dr. Ranicki meant. This wasn’t just a hip problem. This was going to mean harming her brain development, and who knows what that might mean for her down the road.
We began to get our daughter adjusted for the first time, and we did some physical exercises with her at home throughout the day. Her progress was phenomenal. In only a few short weeks she was crawling on her own, and very soon after that she was pulling up and walking.
What is so frustrating is that she had been seen by very competent physicians who had not been terribly concerned about her odd hip flexibility. But Dr. Ranicki was present and aware enough to pick up on what was a huge problem that needed immediate attention even though he was actually busy seeing other patients.
I can’t promise that you might experience such dramatic results for you or a family member in such a short period of time, but I can definitely promise you this: Dr. Ranicki is alert, aware, trained, and fully present to whatever symptoms or health problems you may be experiencing—whether you are aware of them yet or not. He pays attention, and let’s be honest, it’s nice to get attention from time to time.
by Will Forrester
I had been seeing Dr. Ranicki for a couple of months and had already begun to experience pretty significant improvement. And of course I was loving coming for my regular adjustments. I would share with my family the health and wellness related info I would learn from Dr. Ranicki, and finally I began to drag my family along to see Dr. Ranicki and see what all the fuss was about.
At the time my youngest daughter was not really crawling yet, and definitely not walking. She was approaching ten months old at the time. Rather than crawl, she had found a way of moving across the floor that I can only describe as bizarre. Since birth my daughter had nearly 360 degree rotation in her hip sockets. In other words, her legs appeared to be really, really flexible! It was not unusual for her to sit in a manner that she was sitting doing “a split.” And rather than doing traditional crawling, she would move herself forward not on her knees but by moving herself forward, doing a split, then bring her legs forward, then doing another split. It’s hard to explain. It was like she was doing the breaststroke, but with her legs. She could bring them completely forward then pull her body up. It looked strange.
She had seen more than one quality pediatrician since birth, and all had noticed and remarked on how flexible she was in her hips. And the comment that everyone would always make was, “She’ll make a great ballerina one day!”
When we would come see Dr. Ranicki, usually my daughter would just stay in her carrier or in one of our arms, but one day we put her down on the floor and she proceeded to do her strange hip crawl thingie. I will never forget the look on Dr. Ranicki’s face when he saw her do it. He was shocked.
“What is that?” he asked.
“Oh yeah, she’s really flexible! I guess she’ll be a great ballerina one day!” we rattled off our usual comments.
But I could clearly see Dr. Ranicki was concerned. He explained that was she was doing was not normal, and to be so “flexible” was actually not a good thing at all. He asked if we minded if he checked her out. I can’t remember just what he did as he began to examine her, but he was very quickly able to see that she had some serious hip problems that, if not corrected, could seriously affect her ability to crawl and walk normally.
He had our attention.
Then Dr. Ranicki laid even more bad news on us. He explained that crawling is one of the first developmental milestones which is critical for brain development, because it requires both hemispheres of the brain to work in tandem, the right side of the brain causing the left arms and legs to move, while the left brain causing the right arms and legs to move. He had my wife and I hold our daughters arms and legs as she lay on her back. Then he asked us to simulate what crawling would look like. I would bring one leg up while holding the other leg straight, and my wife would do the same with her arms.
It was amazing. As we “forced” our daughter to do crawling motions while lying on her back, I could feel her muscles resist these basic movements, because her brain was having trouble making her arms and legs work the way they need to in order to crawl. I could see what Dr. Ranicki meant. This wasn’t just a hip problem. This was going to mean harming her brain development, and who knows what that might mean for her down the road.
We began to get our daughter adjusted for the first time, and we did some physical exercises with her at home throughout the day. Her progress was phenomenal. In only a few short weeks she was crawling on her own, and very soon after that she was pulling up and walking.
What is so frustrating is that she had been seen by very competent physicians who had not been terribly concerned about her odd hip flexibility. But Dr. Ranicki was present and aware enough to pick up on what was a huge problem that needed immediate attention even though he was actually busy seeing other patients.
I can’t promise that you might experience such dramatic results for you or a family member in such a short period of time, but I can definitely promise you this: Dr. Ranicki is alert, aware, trained, and fully present to whatever symptoms or health problems you may be experiencing—whether you are aware of them yet or not. He pays attention, and let’s be honest, it’s nice to get attention from time to time.
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