MY FIRST

My First

  I have an area of achievement for which I was not seeking to be “a first”, but which turned out to be so, nonetheless.

  In the course of working as a chiropractor and bodyworker at an Integrative Medical Center, I found myself treating many cancer patients, who were at the center for alternative forms of treatment- chelation, IV drips and so forth. 

  One of the patients I treated asked me if I had any experience with manual lymphatic drainage technique. I did not, and noted that I did not even know what it was. The patient told me that it was useful for a large variety of ailments, many of them more visceral, rather than musculoskeletal, which was almost all of the problems I was treating to that time.

  Since the medical center saw so many people with non-musculoskeletal issues, I became quite interested in the method, as it would allow me to help treat more of the patients. I found a chiropractor teaching what he called manual lymph drainage online, and used his tapes to learn his method.

  As it turned out, his method was not truly manual lymph drainage, but I was hooked on the idea by this time, and got connected with the Vodder School of Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD). MLD turned out to be extremely well-structured as both a training and a technique, with a strong scientific and orthopedic bent.

  Created by Emil Vodder and his wife, both physiotherapists, MLD can be used to treat edemas, inflammation of almost any area (gastritis, muscle inflammation, viral or bacterial infection), headache, toxic overload, glaucoma or other conditions. In short, it is a very gentle yet effective means of treating visceral and musculoskeletal issues. 

  I took all four sections off the MLD training, three of them at the Vodder School in Austria. It was not until the actual post-exam giving out of MLD certification diplomas that Hildegarde, probably the best MLD therapist on earth, was giving me my diploma that she noted it was for “DOCTOR David Drier”, since she had not noticed I am a chiropractor. She told me that was the first chiropractor they had graduated, and there are only a few hundred certified MLD practitioners in North Americas as it is.

  So “my first” was becoming the first certified Vodder MLD practitioner who was a doctor of any stripe. That was 16 years ago, and it is still one of my favorite techniques for helping patients with a wide variety of conditions.