Barb was an ER nurse with over 30 years of experience. She was a no-nonsense, tough woman full of spunk. I could tell she laid down the law wherever she went. She related her story while locking my eyes with her steely blues, willing me to listen. I liked her immediately.

It was late March and Barb’s recent bout of neck pain had begun in early February. She’d suffered from chronic headaches and neck pain for years, but it would gradually go away with massage or treatment. In this short interval of time, she’d already been to a chiropractor for several visits, massage therapy, taken a strong pain reliever—hydrocodone—and tried trigger point injections, where lidocaine is injected into knots of muscles to make them go away. The volume of treatment she’d received in such a short period of time told me that she was in a lot of pain.