Sachiko's story has so many layers that I almost don't know where to start. So I'll start where she did: with her best friend Carla, who told her about Blair chiropractic a full ten years before Sachiko actually tried it.
Ten years.
When Sachiko and I finally connected the dots that Carla was the one who had originally planted the seed, all those years before, we both just laughed. Because of course she was. And of course Sachiko hadn't listened. Because that's how it works sometimes. The right information finds you before you're ready for it, and it waits.
The good news is, it waited.
Twenty Chiropractors and Still No Answers
By the time Sachiko walked into my office, she had seen somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 chiropractors. Twenty. She had also seen a Blair doctor before me, which is important context: she wasn't new to this approach. She understood the method. She believed in the premise. But she wasn't holding her corrections, and nobody had ever sat her down and asked her about her life, her history, her trauma, and connected the dots between all of it and what her body was doing.
That conversation, the one where we look at the whole person and not just the symptomatic area, is something I consider non-negotiable. The body doesn't experience pain in isolation. It experiences it as a system. And until someone helps you see the whole picture, you're working with pieces.
Sachiko said it directly: "Of the 20 or so chiropractors I had ever seen, nobody had ever put it all together for me. And it was eye-opening. It was life-changing."
A Month on a Cane at 22
Here is a snapshot of what Sachiko was living with before Blair care: at 22 years old, working in a restaurant, her lower back locked up so severely that the pain was radiating down both legs and she couldn't walk without a cane. She took an entire month off work. In the restaurant industry, there is no PTO. There is no safety net. She just lost a month of income and stability because her body gave out.
That level of pain had been a recurring feature of her life for years. It was, in her words, a staple.
She carried that history through her 20s, through her marriage, through years of travel for work, through trying to get pregnant. All of it layered on top of a spine that had never been properly addressed.
When she finally started holding her Blair correction, the lower back episodes stopped. Not reduced. Stopped. She went through a full nine-month pregnancy and delivered an almost ten-pound baby and never once went out of alignment. Never needed another upper cervical correction through the entire thing.
"The fact that I got through nine months of pregnancy and gave birth to an almost 10-pound baby and still have not experienced that pain is still a little bit mind-boggling to me," she said.
It isn't mind-boggling to me. It's exactly what the body can do when it's given the right foundation.
The Baby That Almost Wasn't
This is the part of Sachiko's story that I have to sit with every time I tell it.
She and her husband Caleb had been trying to get pregnant for five or six years. They were at the point of accepting that it might not happen naturally. They hadn't gone far down the medical fertility route, but they were close.
About a year into her Blair care with me, after holding her correction and experiencing what she described as a domino effect of better decisions, more clarity, more energy, she got pregnant. December 2019.
Their son Caleb is, as she put it, rambunctious, lively, hitting every milestone early, and sleeping 10 to 11 hours a night.
I want to be clear about something I said on this episode, because I mean it with my whole heart: I move the bone. God does the healing. I don't take credit for Sachiko's son. I take credit for creating the environment where her body could do what it was designed to do. The rest was not in my hands.
But being able to play even a small role in ushering that life forward? That is the most humbling thing I get to be part of in this work.
Baby Caleb's First Adjustment
A couple of days after delivery, Sachiko and Caleb brought their newborn in to see me. She was barely on her feet. And she trusted me with her brand new baby.
He had been a good sleeper, a good baby overall, but a little fussy. Not alarmingly so, just that low-grade discomfort that newborns sometimes carry and can't explain. The moment I adjusted him, he stopped crying. Not gradually. Immediately. And then he smiled. And then he engaged. And then he slept six hours straight that night.
To this day, sleep has never been an issue for him.
I say this not to be dramatic but because it matters: babies go through an enormous amount of physical stress during birth, especially difficult deliveries. The upper cervical spine is particularly vulnerable. And when there's interference in that area, it can show up as fussiness, trouble nursing on one side, difficulty sleeping, or just a general discomfort the baby can't communicate except through crying. A gentle pediatric adjustment can make an enormous difference, and the parents' world gets better right along with the baby's.
Listen to the Nudge
Sachiko is someone who will tell her own story as a cautionary tale without hesitation. She will be the first to say: don't do what I did. If someone is pointing you toward Blair, go sooner. Learn from wisdom, not consequence.
She also said something I thought was really beautiful about the experience of being skeptical but feeling drawn to something anyway: "I think that anytime someone feels skeptical of something but it keeps popping up or they feel drawn to it, it's because it's a nudge. I would just encourage someone to be willing to listen to the nudge."
That is exactly right. I spent years as a chiropractic student being skeptical of Blair, growing up in the town where chiropractic was founded and still thinking, how could one bone make that much difference? And then it changed my life instantly. And I knew.
When something keeps showing up, that is not coincidence. That is an invitation.
The Body Is a Vessel
When I asked Sachiko what it means to her to live her life in alignment, she talked about foundation: her relationship with God, her relationship with herself, and understanding that her body is the vessel that houses everything most important to her.
"Living life in alignment is truly honoring that," she said, "and doing what I can to protect and foster and encourage healing in all areas of my life and in everyone I come across."
She also said 2020, the year she had her baby, the year the whole world fell apart, was genuinely the best year of her life. Because healing had become such a central part of how she moved through the world that even in chaos, she had something to stand on.
That is what this work is really about. Not just a neck that stops hurting. A life you can actually stand in.
Listen to the full conversation with Sachiko on the Well Connected Podcast: Live Your Life in Alignment. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Ready to listen to your nudge? Visit us at wellconnectedchiro.com.
