Cianci Chiropractic Center Success Stories

Norman Steffens Smith — you can call him Steff, most folks do — is thinking seriously about hopping in the car, going out to Hog Neck Golf Course and giving the Executive nine a try.

He recently took some whiffle balls and a nine iron and went out into the backyard of his Easton home and took some practice swings.

“It went pretty well,” he said. He was testing his back, his lower back, where, several years before, what was described as “a terrible spine” and its associated disabilities and pain, had become a reality in his life. He was discovering that a decision he had made last October to visit the office of Easton chiropractor Dr. Christopher Cianci was finally ending nearly five years of low-back misery.

Smith, who will be 82 in November, retired in 1996 as a construction superintendent for what was Bethlehem Steel. He worked in the company’s shipyard division and spent the final five years of his employment there at the Sparrows Point terminal in Baltimore.

Smith recalls that his back problems began after the death of his wife, Jacqueline, in 2004. As he explored his options for treatment of the stenosis and scoliosis which was crippling him and robbing him of his enjoyment of his retirement years, he became discouraged.

He had had all the shots. A surgeon told him that, in his situation, the success of a back operation was only a 50 percent proposition. He recalled that his late wife, a nurse, had had four spinal surgeries prior to her death.

None of the surgeries was successful, he said. “That spooked me.”

Enter Smith’s daughter-in-law, Lynn Smith, an avid tennis player and, since 2013, a patient of Dr. Cianci.

She sought his chiropractic attention because of a bad back that threatened to take her off the court. It was she, of course, who suggested that Steff take his case to Dr. Cianci.

Through the months since, and under Cianci’s care, Smith has been able to recapture his life — teaching a beginner’s computer class at Chesapeake College for which he must stand for three hours…. returning to the
water, able finally to walk the dock and get aboard his boat without the use of a cane … and of course, swinging a nine iron in the backyard.

An integral part of Smith’s treatment at Cianci Chiropractic Center has been the use of a spinal decompression table. The patient lies on the table, usually for about 15 minutes; as the table, gently and continuously, stretches and relaxes the spine.

“It was all so very comfortable,” Smith said, “I often just went to sleep. In reviewing his treatment of Mr. Smith, Dr. Cianci recalled that the patient in his own words, had gotten “disgusted with myself.” He did not want much, Dr. Cianci said. “He just wanted to be able to do simple things — chores around the house, use his boat and perhaps, play a little golf.

“He wanted to be able to walk more than a quarter-mile. He had done physical therapy. It did not provide a lasting effect, He was taking an over-the-counter pain relief pill, and finally, that wasn’t working either.”

Dr. Cianci commented that Mr. Smith was courageous enough that despite the let-downs of unsuccessful approaches and despite the frustration and sense of hopelessness, he pressed on.

“He was cautious and let’s say a bit skeptical that chiropractic could help,” Dr. Cianci added. But no longer. The decompression table, the Easton chiropractor said, “is a wonderful tool for chronically arthritic spines and for persons with herniated or bulging discs.”

Decompression is best described as a way to rejuvenate worn-out discs gently, in a manner that can’t be duplicated. Dr. Cianci noted that there are two approaches here. There is the “quit doing any activity that makes you hurt” approach, or there is the let’s take advantage of the technical approach and get you back to being healthy, active and mobile.

“The technology approach is working for Steffens Smith. It is obvious in his manner, in the smile on his face, in his vitality and delight in being able to return to the activities he once thought he had lost forever.”

Cianci Chiropractic, located at 8737 Brooks Drive in the Easton Industrial Park can help keep you on a healthy path.
Contact Cianci Chiropractic at 410-820-4070. You can also find Cianci Chiropractic online at www.drcianci.com.