Life's Little Adjustments
Have you ever dreamed about packing everything up, leaving it all behind and starting a new life or adventure? Well, that is what Creative Chiro’s new resident Chiropractor and his family decided to do and it has led them to our doorstep at the Practice, here in North Norfolk.
The dream began for Raydon and Natalie Whitlock on a warm summer Saturday morning on an open veranda, overlooking a rolling blue ocean. They had recently bought a new home in the seaside town of Umhlanga, on the North Coast of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa, an area of the country which they both loved and had spent the better part of the last 20 years making a life for themselves.
As they relaxed drinking coffee, the conversation was much as you would expect it to be for parents of two young children: ‘What time is Bryce’s football match?’ ‘How was Dayna’s ballet and swimming this week?’ and so on. But, as Raydon explains, on this particular morning he asked a question that caught Natalie completely off guard…
I had been daydreaming about the idea of us all embarking on a new adventure, so I asked her:
‘Are you happy to grow old here, doing the same things we are doing now for the next 20 years, until the kids leave home for university?’
‘I think so, why do you ask?’ she replied, which wasn’t quite the reaction I was hoping for.
‘I just feel like we’ve achieved all we can here,’ I said, ‘and I want to see more of the world, don’t you?’
But that was as far as the conversation went, as Bryce and Dayna came bubbling through the doorway, begging for a swim in the pool.
A few weeks later, it was Natalie who returned to the subject: ‘I’ve been mulling your question over and I think an adventure could be quite exciting!’ The stage was set. Now we just had to work out the ‘when, where and how’!
We soon settled on the UK, as Natalie is a British citizen and it was at the centre of everything we wanted to do and see. We were delighted to discover that I would be able to continue my 20-year career as a chiropractor, which began after I was successfully treated by a chiropractor for a long-term back injury that was preventing me from playing the sports I loved. I was inspired to complete a five-year Chiropractic Master’s degree (MTech Chiro) and two additional qualifications in sports injury assessment and treatment.
My interest in sport led me to begin working part-time as the chiropractor for various sports teams and events and, while in my final years of university, I was chosen to work as a chiropractor at the All-Africa Games, the Nike World Junior Tennis Championships, and the World Softball Championships. More recently, I have worked with a couple of the South African provincial sports teams and the South African National Touch Rugby team as head medic at two World Cup events.
While I will always maintain an interest in Sports Injuries, I have never limited myself to this branch of chiropractic and thoroughly enjoy treating patients of all ages with a wide variety of musculoskeletal conditions. My aim now was to find the right practice in the UK, which would enable me to continue using all my skills and experience.
Finding The One…
CVs went out and after sifting through the replies, one stood out head and shoulders above the rest. This is the excerpt from the job listing, describing the practice:
Creative Chiro is beautifully situated in a fully renovated Grade 2 listed building in the inspiring and award-winning location of Pensthorpe Natural Park, on the outskirts of the bustling town of Fakenham. With miles of beautiful coastline and a huge array of outdoor activities on offer within a short travelling distance of the practice, we are truly able to achieve and enjoy the ideal balance between work and leisure.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to wake up every day to go to work in a place like this? Very soon the reasons for accepting the position began racking up: The location of the practice in the North Norfolk countryside provided the lifestyle we wanted in which to raise Bryce and Dayna.
The final reason, and perhaps most important, came during the interview process. It linked to the character of the practice owners and their amazing willingness to assist and go the extra mile in anything that would make the daunting transition from life in South Africa to the UK as smooth and convenient as possible. It is fair to say that a friendship developed - in fact, it is seldom we would call on our friends to go to the level of care and kindness that these two special people did!
Over the next three months, time seemed to both slip into hyperdrive and crawl through a bowl of treacle. But eventually - and quite suddenly - the big day arrived, and we boarded the plane to begin our big adventure. Rarely do dreams and reality come together, but in this instance, that anomaly has indeed occurred, and produced one happy family.
When asked if we feel we have made the right decision in uprooting our world for this piece of the English countryside, Natalie says:
Moving countries is never easy. When we decided to make this move it was overwhelming. But Creative Chiro was so helpful in every way, from assisting us with the visa process, to sending information on schools for our children and areas to live that were situated close to the Practice. Knowing that someone was there for us made the transition so much easier and less daunting.
Down To Work…
Due to the nature of where we are, we see patients from all sorts of professions: farmers, office workers, builders, chefs, hospital workers, mums-to-be, retirees, sports-persons… you name it, we treat them.
The examples below are a snapshot of the variety of patients we see…
A young professional training for a sports event was experiencing acute lower back pain. This was limiting their training as they could not run more than a few miles. An examination showed it was due to restricted movement in one of the big joints in the pelvis, which had caused a severe trigger point (knot). Several chiropractic adjustments later, the patient was running without pain and able to complete their sporting event as planned. Helping this patient to achieve a long-held dream was a great feeling.
An older patient in the building trade had been experiencing pain deep inside his shoulder radiating into his bicep, causing limited movement for over two years. Due to the physicality of his work, the pain was becoming a real problem, both physically and mentally, as the chronic nature of the problem was causing him to feel quite down. He was at a loss as to how to sort it out as there was no one thing he could pinpoint that had caused his problem. A few sessions of chiropractic adjustments to the shoulder joint and he is now 95% pain-free. Currently, a treatment every six to eight weeks helps keep it that way. This is known as preventative or maintenance care and the most effective long-term solution for people who have spent such a long time in constant pain.
Although chiropractic primarily involves adjustment of the spine and other joints in the body, the great thing about being part of a multidisciplinary practice is that we offer a wide variety of treatment options, through both our chiropractic and clinical massage therapist offering. This enables us to tailor treatment to each patient, depending on their individual circumstance. Alongside their treatments, where appropriate, our patients also receive advice for self-help plus guidance on rehabilitation exercises and stretches which they can do themselves to improve their conditions.
The whole team at Creative Chiro are incredible. They are kind, caring and warm and they always have my family and the patients’ best interests at heart. We are very happy here and feel settled. Norfolk folk have done us proud at every turn and gone out of their way to make us feel part of the community, including people like Chris and Helen at The Jolly Farmers, our local pub in North Creake, and Soul Phoenix from the local Touch Rugby League.
Our children are happily settled at a beautiful local school. Holkham Estate and the coastal walks have become a part of our routine, an experience that shouldn’t be missed. We are also looking forward to the holidays that being on the edge of Europe provides. Our dreams are being lived each and every day and we are eternally grateful that we took that first step and made our own little life adjustments!