Pushing Through the Pain: How this Diehard Athlete Refused to Quit

Dr. Rita Roy: Hi everyone. My name is Dr. Rita Roy, CEO of the National Spine Health Foundation, and I’m your host for the Get Back To It podcast, where we tell real stories of healing and recovery. What does it mean to get back to it? It means overcoming injury through treatments that work in order to return to the people and activities you love, whatever that looks like for you.

It means getting back to your life. We’re here to share the success stories of those who did just that. And some of these stories, you’re not going to believe.

At the Get Back To It podcast, our goal is to tell stories of spinal champions who’ve been able to achieve a better quality of life through spinal health care. In today’s episode, I am delighted to be speaking with Kerri Webb, who injured herself while doing gymnastics  at the tender age of eight yearsold.

After a visit with a chiropractor and leaving in worse condition and no answers, she managed to live with her pain while competing in several more sports over many years. After seeing another chiropractor at age 17, she was told to stop playing all sports if she wanted to walk. when she was 40. She continued playing sports through the pain and the flare ups, which became complicated by Lyme disease.

After extensive self rehabilitation over many years, she was able to compete in marathons and triathlons. Now Kerri is doing all the things she loves, including biking, hiking, lifting, and many other activities. Now that you know what to expect, let’s get back to it and dive right into Kerri’s story.

Kerri Webb: Um, yes, that’s right. I started having severe low back pain when I was eight years old, when I was on a gymnastics team. Um, it kept worsening and I had to stop training with the team. I didn’t know what to do. So, um, my mom had been seeing a chiropractor and she brought me in to see this practitioner. He manipulated my spine without an x ray.

And then all I remember is the next day I couldn’t even walk or put my clothes on. So my mom had to help me carry me back into the office. And then I just wouldn’t get treated ever again by him. So we walked back out. Although I wasn’t really walking. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Kerri went without answers and continued to play three sports in high school.

Cross country, basketball, and softball. But with significant amounts of back pain. 

Kerri Webb: So at that point, I was, I had increased back pain. I didn’t know what to do. But I’m a diehard athlete and I did not want to stop at all. And so we went to another doctor, this was again a chiropractor, and he took an x ray of my spine.

Um, he found a spondylolisthesis, an old one, which would be about 10 years old at that time. And a spondylolisthesis is where, um, there’s actually a fracture in the vertebrae and then the vertebrae slips forward one over the other. So it’s a relatively unstable scenario and it can, you know, obviously give a lot of pain.

And so I was basically dealing with a very unstable spine throughout my youth and my high school career without really knowing what, what it was. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Kerri contracted Lyme disease the summer before her freshman year of college, which created an inflammatory response in her lumbar spine, and she went into sepsis with meningitis.

Kerri Webb: So things took a turn for the worse before I went to college. Yeah, and it was very confusing for the The medical community, because there was a very large amount of swelling in my low back, which we attributed to the old spinal fracture, but it was actually Lyme disease, which, you know, often settles in peripheral joints, like knees, elbows, something else.

Um, but this was in my low back as well. So this further created more pain. And I actually went into a septic state where I couldn’t move my arms or legs for several hours until an IV antibiotic. So now I’m really in the hurt locker at that point in time, right before I’m going into, um, my college. And, but I’m still determined at that point.

I know I have to do something. So I had decided to become a physical therapist and something’s got to change. So I decided that that type of physical therapy made sense. The science seemed to add up to me and I thought that approach could really be effective. So I went to school to become a physical therapist.

And in college, that was my whole focus. Um, except that I also wanted to play basketball. So while I’m in this, you know, kind of disastrous state of terrible spine stuff, uh, meningitis, uh, I still walked onto the team and made the team somehow. And then I ended up playing for two years at the collegiate level, but it was, it was, uh, it was a rough time for me.

It was, you know, uh, increased competition. competitive status and bigger girls that I’m playing against. And my back was really, really roughed up at that point in time. So, yeah, so I did end up playing collegiate basketball for two years, but I went up for a rebound in one of the practices and I got hit in the back, um, from like a post player.

So pretty big girl. And I just remember hyperextending my spine, which isn’t great for the type of spinal condition I had. And I hit the floor and I, for one split second, I bent over. I didn’t know if I would be able to stand back up. And for whatever reason, mentally, it just really shook me that I was kind of playing with fire at this point in time, um, with such an unstable spine and a collegiate basketball environment.

So that was actually the point where I was like, I’ve gotta, I’ve gotta stop doing this. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Kerri went on to graduate with a physical therapy degree and has opened up a sports rehab practice. Kerri rehabbed her own back and has helped countless others manage their injuries. 

Kerri Webb: Yes. So. Basically my life was kind of predetermined back when I was eight years old.

It’s been a huge mission for me. The thing is, after I went to physical therapy school, I really figured out what the right approach is for my type of spinal condition. Um, I did not need surgery. I was able to bypass that with the right exercises and the right lifestyle means. And I was able to actually rehabilitate my own back.

And at that point I was feeling good. So now, now I’m in my, you know, maybe mid twenties and my back pain is little to nothing. And so I started running marathons just because I could run without pain anymore. So I just kept running and running. I got a little bit bored. So I switched over to triathlons and then I kept running, biking and swimming.

And I ended up doing, um, two iron man triathlon distances as well. So there’s the big ones they take all day. They take a lot of training. But I was just so happy to be moving without pain that I literally just didn’t stop moving. 

Dr. Rita Roy: That’s

incredible. That is absolutely incredible. And, and so how’s that going now? Are you, are you able to compete or that, that takes a lot of time also to train for those? 

Kerri Webb: Yeah, it sure does. And I was running a sports and I was running a sports rehab practice as well. So I did actually compete with a local triathlon team for 10 years.

Um, did pretty well there. And then I just got, I got a little, just burnt out by long distance stuff, but my back was doing great. So, um, now. I’m continuing to expand my practice and that’s my focus, but I am an athlete at heart. So I, I love lifting. I do trail running. I’m hiking. We’re actually going on a big bike trip.

So our vacation in, let’s see, in July is a five day bike tour in the Alps, like behind the tour of France doing climbing summits and stuff like that. And then we’re going to go hike in the Alps. In the Swiss Alps following that for another week. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Wow. Kerri, this is so exciting. Your story is so amazing.

And I’m so excited to talk with you about this. And I’ve got so many questions for you. Um, I, I think that one of the things that’s so important is that, you know, you show what can happen. With a really good plan, perseverance and commitment to your rehab, um, and to your exercise and, and knowing what it’s going to take to keep yourself safe and out of pain.

And, and I think, um, that is just remarkable. You know, I, I, I’m curious. So when you, when you decided to go to college, had you been seeing physical therapists along the way during your, your high school athletic. time? 

Kerri Webb: Yeah, that’s a good question. I did see a physical therapist when I was in high school during the Lyme disease episode, but it was a very confusing time again because we didn’t know what.

Um, and then I did see physical therapists on and off in college as well as the athletic trainers. And that was pretty much half my time was spent in those places. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah. So you knew heading into college that maybe physical therapy was going to be a career for you just based on your high school experiences, or was that something that emerged during your experience in college?

Kerri Webb: Oh, in high school, all I wanted to do was be a physical therapist. Okay. Yeah. I, in high school, I was like, I think that physical therapy makes sense. The science seems to, you know, work out in my head for how to address these injuries. And so I’m literally going to college to be a physical therapist. And when I get out, I’m going to set up a practice that helps all the other athletes in the community so that they get the right diagnosis, they get the right rehab, and they get back to doing what they love and never lose hope.

Dr. Rita Roy: Kerri, that is amazing. And that’s what, that’s what the story is all about is giving people hope that they can overcome an injury or condition and get back to doing the things that they love doing. Now, I’m curious. So when you were very young and in gymnastics and probably got the fracture during that time, um, a lot of time went by from that incident where you saw the chiropractor, he did a manipulation, probably stung a nerve.

You couldn’t move for a little bit. Were you not scared at that point? Or what, what was, why did it take so long for you to go back to see another doctor? What, what happened during that interval? 

Kerri Webb: I mean, as a kid, you think you’re invincible. And I think looking back, it’s hard for me to say, but I think I, I actually didn’t really know what it was like to not have.

Pain and to be normal in that way. So it was more, we had a very tough it out mentality, although I’m not sure that I conveyed how much pain I actually wasn’t as a kid, like we kind of hide it. Right. We just want to play coach, put me in. You don’t want to tell them you’re in pain because you want to make sure you get into the game.

Yeah, that’s right. So I just, I didn’t know as a kid what types of doctors I could go to. And I think, you know, there was uncertainty. I was, it was a small town. There weren’t many people, um, maybe not the options. Um, so it was, You know, just keep kind of playing through the pain and hope it goes away. Um, but, you know, the more competitive the levels got, like into high school, the worse that it became.

So then we really, we had to seek out more help. 

Dr. Rita Roy: You had to seek more help. And along those ways, were there trainers that you were working with on that athletic journey through your childhood? 

Kerri Webb: No, I mean, growing up in small town, Connecticut, there were no athletic trainers in these schools, unlike around here where there, you know, like, I love to see that there’s that kind of care for every athlete in these high schools.

Um, but we did not, we did not have that. Um, we really had to see practice or, you know, figure out where the good doctors were. Um, and generally, I mean, it’s just such a small town, maybe not too many resources. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, so when you started doing your own rehab, were you in college at that point or did you start doing some of those things in high school?

Kerri Webb: Well, yeah, high school I had no idea what to do. I just knew the doctors were telling me, you know, It’s not going to, it’s not going to be okay. Don’t play sports anymore. And I just thought that’s not okay for me. I don’t accept that. That’s not an option. Yeah, that’s not an option. That’s not an option. And so, you know, the first couple of years in physical therapy school, you still don’t know what you’re doing.

You’re just building some basic anatomy knowledge up. But by the time I got to junior and senior year, um, I started to really wrap my brain around how to rehab and what I could actually do for this. So I had stopped playing. Collegiate basketball after the sophomore year and then I really started focusing on rehab I threw in a couple pickup games here and there because I love basketball so much But it was really more focused on my studies.

And I mean I was at my own first case study of a client Right, right. Oh my gosh 

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, so that’s amazing. So then you learned these techniques to um manage you, you know, You Pain and manage the pain that comes with the spondy and all of a sudden you got yourself out of pain. 

Kerri Webb: Yeah, it’s interesting. Um, you know, because that dense connective tissue forms in that area, the whole time when I was young, I was so afraid of it being unstable and slipping and that gets in your head like, Oh my gosh, my spine is going to slip.

And you’re kind of obsessed with that visual of this unstable spine situation that sounds scary. But the more that I studied physical therapy and understood dense connective tissue grows in the area, I realized because it had been so long, I mean, when I’m in my twenties, it’s like, you know, a 20 year old spondylolisthesis, right, right.

It was a stiff case, not an unstable case. So while I had been doing core historically, I realized I actually also had to focus on the mobility to get that area going in both the hips and the lumbopelvic region. And so that really started freeing up the compressive forces in that area. And then I learned, you know, there’s about cheer and flexion and exercises and, you know, working some soft tissue around it.

Dr. Rita Roy: What, 

what level is your spon at? Curious what, what level are you at? 

Kerri Webb: Yeah. It, it’s your L five S one standard. Okay. Yes. Mm-Hmm. right there. Yeah. Yep. I had a, I have, I had a spon at L four L five, but uh, mine was unstable and, well, for 10 years it was pretty stable, but then I. I got a knee injury, which then made my back unstable and it, you know, the chain.

Dr. Rita Roy: And so I began to have nerve symptoms. And so that was when I had to go from just doing physical therapy and managing it with yoga, Pilates, and core strengthening to actually having to have surgical intervention. 

So it’s interesting what the, you know, what the path and the journey can be. And It’s different for everybody and it changes over time too, right?

Kerri Webb: I mean, I think that’s, that’s an interesting thing. Yeah, and I think that’s the biggest point is really that, you know, physical therapy really isn’t just a four week or an eight week thing. For us, when it comes to spine, I always tell, I always tell my clients and I tell myself this too. Um, you know, everybody should be doing spinal mobility and exercises and core strengthening, but we just have a reason to really do it.

Yeah. Right. And so I think it’s all about lifestyle and for every single injury out there, the body likes to move. And when we don’t is when we start to have. A lot of issues. So, you know, keeping that body moving and I don’t sit a lot. I don’t even like to sit. I just get bored sitting, but, you know, continues to change positions and making sure that, you know, really getting rid of these sedentary habits and creating this active lifestyle is just the key to not only my spinal injury, but honestly, most injuries.

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, a body in motion stays in motion, right? I mean, I think that’s Law of physics, but it’s kind of in our general, you know Dialogue in general understanding, but what does that actually mean? That means? Just move, just, just move, get up and move and, um, and it doesn’t have to be like anything major. It can be just getting up every 30 minutes, right?

We tell people who work at desks, set a timer, you know, stay hydrated because when you drink water, guess what? You have to get up and go to the bathroom. So it’s sort of this built in, like, you know, wellness thing when you stay hydrated and you have to get up and move and yeah, you know, and just getting that exercise and, and, you know, I, I easily do five to six days a week.

Easily. Yeah. And, and, and I think the, the cool thing about exercise is that it is, it is a healthy addiction, right? You begin to feel good and you crave that feeling and you just want to continue to have that sort of how you were like, Oh my gosh, my back pain’s gone. I’m going to. I’m going to run a mile.

I’m going to run five miles. I’m going to run 26 miles. I didn’t do that in an ironman. Like, just, you just feel so good. Uh, you want to just keep that good feeling going. So that’s amazing. I was going to say about movement. Um, one of the other conditions that there’s actually a lot of scientific evidence around, um, movement being a type of therapy for, and that’s arthritis.

Um, so there’s a lot of, you know, sort of evidence based, um, movement that actually can eliminate or reduce pain from arthritis, arthritis being a condition that affects our spine just like many other joints in our, in our bodies. And that moving, you know, motion is lotion. It’s just sort of that idea that if you can stay in motion, it’s sometimes it’s hard to get moving.

Cause that initial push to move. hurts. Like it doesn’t feel great to get over the inertia, but then once you do, that’s an incredible feeling. And so to keep that going is, is what we want people to be doing. Right. And you see that every day now in your physical therapy. 

Kerri Webb: My analogy is, you know, I, I referenced the synovial fluid, the synovial joint fluid and sounds like that does not get into your joints unless you start moving.

And that is the oil for your joints. So that’s the way we lubricate these joints, even if they are arthritic. Um, and certainly arthritis is not very much. And end all be all there’s so much to do for it to make it feel incredibly better. But yeah, I mean, it’s all about movement. And for me as a physical therapist, it’s all about strategic movement.

So there are things that will make certain conditions better and certain conditions worse, but it’s about having a strategy that’s specific and customized. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, for each, each person, and I, and I love what you said, um, a few minutes ago about consistency. You know, a lot of times people will say, yeah, I went to physical therapy.

I was really good about my rehab. I went, you know, twice a week for four weeks and, you know, we’re going, wait, that was supposed to create a habit and teach you how to do this so you can now do this. Every day on your own or a few times a week on your own, right? 

Kerri Webb: Yeah, and I totally get it. Nobody wants to do their physical therapy home exercise program for the rest of their lives.

So we encourage people to, you know, work with personal trainers or, um, like adopt some, some activity that they think is really, really fun. And then in my practice, we do performance check ins once a month where we check on the status of that athlete. Thank you. We get ahead of anything brewing and then we set up corrective exercises for that month.

Um, yeah, but it’s hard to know what to do sometimes, but going back to the pre lifestyle of, you know, when you got injured, before you got injured, definitely does not help. 

Dr. Rita Roy: What do you say to people who say, well, I’m afraid I’m going to hurt myself. So I’m just gonna. Take it really easy and not push myself.

What do you say to that? 

Kerri Webb: Yeah, that’s such a good question. So Um, you know, the main thing is to really understand what is going on So the biggest thing that we do is we empower people with the knowledge When I was a kid, I didn’t know what was going on with my back But now that I do I can understand.

Okay, when I move that direction, okay, that is going to hurt but I know why it is And so I can figure out strategies to rehab it, treat it, and then to fix it, but it’s without having that knowledge of what it is and being empowered with that information. It is kind of challenging and it can be scary, but pain is only your body telling you, hey, something is a little off.

Something is a little wrong and we need to address that. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, that’s so interesting. I love what you said, empowering people with knowledge. I mean, that is our goal here at the National Spine Health Foundation. In fact, that’s like our soundbite. That’s our purpose. We give knowledge, we give hope, we empower people with knowledge and hope.

And, you know, as you were talking about, um, you know, yourself, you know, Knowing your anatomy and understanding what’s going on in your body. I think one of the things that’s so hard about spine is that the anatomy is complicated, right? You have bones, the vertebrae. There’s a lot of them. There’s 33 of them.

You have discs in between the bones, you have nerves shooting out the sides of the bones, you know, and then you’ve got all these ligaments that are attaching to the bones for important muscles that move you through life. And so there is just a lot going on with the spine that, that is. It’s hard to learn and hard to, to know and to understand kind of makes me think about, you know, your very first experience going to the first chiropractor when you were little and no x ray was taken of what was going on.

Yeah. Talk to me about that and what your, what your thoughts are on that at this, at this point, knowing what you know. 

Kerri Webb: Yeah, whenever we see young, young children, young athletes with that type of back pain, inevitably there’s usually a stress fracture under there. Um, so this was a really a text. Book case scenario.

And so absolutely that x ray should have been taken again. This was a long time ago in a small town So I think that they the chiropractors weren’t really seeing the young children and the youth athletes But it would have given all the information we needed at that point in time and you know A good practitioner really could have changed the game right there But I you know, I look back and this has crafted my entire life.

So I’m actually grateful for every part of this experience because I know exactly you know how to relate to clients and how people feel and most importantly what it feels like when You you don’t know what to do. You’re scared. You don’t want to be in pain. You’re tired you know, but you you don’t want to give up and you need solutions and um, you know, I can understand that entire journey and Um, that’s why I do what I do 

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, that’s, that’s incredible.

I mean, I think the silver lining of getting a condition, you know, a spine condition earlier in life is that it does teach you how important it is and what to do to take care of your spine. And that Kerris you through life. Um, and so, yeah, definitely a silver lining there in your life for sure. Um, and how amazing for you to be able to relate to your patients that are coming in for physical therapy that, I mean, I just think that’s such a gift that you can give to the people who you see, um, cause you, you can relate to it and, and you know what it feels like.

Kerri Webb: Yeah. And it’s really, it’s really fulfilling as every day, you know, uh, uh, I just, I get to help people get out of pain every day. And when you get to see them have the small victories, the big victories, getting back to the activity and ultimately the joy in their lives, I always tell, I tell my team, I say, Hey, you know, we’re not necessarily, uh, you know, a profession that’s life or death as physical therapists, but we’re quality of life.

And when we do our jobs well and our clients, you know, lock into the plans, I mean, this is a dramatic change in the direction that people’s lives go. And so we are just honored to be a part of that journey and, you know, blessed to be, you know, good at science and have this affinity to physical therapy and be able to do this type of a job.

This type of work. 

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, that, that’s incredible. I do want to underscore what you said, Kerri, about, you know, helping people with their quality of life. And that, while that may not seem like a life saving thing, if you are a person who has been debilitated by pain, by a spine condition, it does kind of feel like life as you know it has ended.

And um, you know, people, people get depression. That can lead to suicidal thoughts, which can be life ending. Um, the other thing that happens with low mobility is that you can develop cardiovascular conditions. I mean, there are other health hazards that come with low mobility and low functional life. And so, yes, it’s.

It’s improving the quality of life, but that means also the quality of your health, and that’s the overall way that you live. And so it, it is sort of restoring life in many ways. And that’s why I think that, you know, the work that physical therapists do is so important and so critical to to life and to life being lived well.

Get back to it, right? You want to get back to it. You want to get back to whatever it is that you love doing. What do you tell people who, who, um, don’t know how to get to a physical therapist? So I know there are a number of states in our country where you don’t need a prescription to see a physical therapist.

Can you talk about access to physical therapy? What that’s like? 

Kerri Webb: Yes, over the last 10 years, we’ve made such progress in the industry. I couldn’t be more excited. And Virginia finally, as of June of last year, adopted a unlimited direct access policy. So yeah, I’m so excited. So what that means is for Anyone can go straight to the physical therapist without a prescription from another doctor, which, you know, I’m, I’m super excited about because we know the earlier that you treat an injury, especially if it’s in the golden window of the first two weeks, it expedites the recovery.

In fact, they can cut it in half. So the faster you can get it treated, our results are so quick because people can just come in. straight to us. They’ll sometimes they’ll see us at the day after an injury or, you know, within a week. And it’s just so amazing how fast we can get them back. So direct access has been bold.

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah. And are there many, are there many states around the country that offer that? 

Kerri Webb: Yeah, so there’s, there’s, um, wow, I don’t know what the count is. It’s gotta be in the strong forties and there, you know, it’s different types of regulation, but certainly DC and, um, DC, Maryland. Virginia, I believe West Virginia as well, all have unlimited direct access.

Dr. Rita Roy: That’s great. So we would encourage listeners to, um, you know, just sort of Google that or call your local physical therapist and, and ask about access or what they need to be able to be seen. So one, one question about access to care, what would be the difference between going to see a chiropractor or a physical therapist and how should people think about which practitioner to go to?

Kerri Webb: That’s a great question. Um, you know, every, every practitioner is a little different, but when it comes to physical therapy, um, we’re looking at the body as a whole. I, I specialize in sports rehabilitation. So this is, uh, you know, even a different setting than general orthopedics. Um, but we are really looking at the client globally.

And the main things that we do is we, number one, we. We fix the pain. We get rid of the pain. Number two, we find the cause. And that’s the most important thing to figure out what is driving that pain and educating the client. If the client knows what is going on there, they suddenly become in control instead of out of control.

And then number three, we create a long term solution for resilience and injury prevention. Um, so physical therapists generally we’re blending hands on treatment with manual therapy, joint mobilizations, um, good, strong, strategic exercises specific to the client and a lot of movement retraining, retraining how the body is moving, whether it’s in sports or, you know, your ADLs, like lifting things around the house or that type of thing.

Dr. Rita Roy: Yeah, that’s awesome. Okay. Thank you for that explanation. That’s fantastic. And I’m just so excited to sort of announce from the mountaintops that people can just go to physical therapy. They feel like they need it. Go get it. Go talk to a professional. And you know, there are all these new things. There’s There’s dry needling for muscles, there’s, uh, functional stretching, um, you know, just lots of different things to learn about and strategies for, for getting movement, um, going and that movement helps, you know, helps pain, helps the joints, helps the total body sort of move through life, which I love what you’re saying.

That’s so important. Yeah. So fantastic. 

Kerri Webb: And we’re also, we’re trained to screen out too. So if this did, so say, you know, someone came in to see us, but physical therapy was not the appropriate type of treatment, we would be able to refer out to an orthopedic doctor, um, you know, or a rheumatologist who knows, you know, we can, we can send people in the right direction, but 90 percent of the musculoskeletal injuries we can just handle and get going day one.

Dr. Rita Roy: That’s amazing. That’s, that’s awesome. And yeah, I mean, I think, you know, with the spine, with the spondy or, or other conditions in the spine that, you know, when the nerves are involved, that, that brings the, uh, treatment to a different sort of level. And that’s something that a physical therapist can do.

Also can help identify, you know, we use words like radiculopathy and, you know, other, other kinds of myelopathies or nerve pain that nerve is being stimulated by something that maybe is anatomically going wrong that might need some kind of correction, whether it’s an injection or surgical treatment or, or not.

Um, and, and a physical therapist can be that first line of helping to think through what, what does this journey gonna look like? Um, and that’s, that’s fantastic. 

Kerri Webb: And we love collaborating with other healthcare practitioners to bring all, you know, all the worlds together for our single client. 

Dr. Rita Roy: That’s fantastic.

That’s awesome. Well, Kerri, this has been an absolutely fascinating conversation. So many lessons to learn from your life story. And I’m, I’m just so appreciative that you’ve taken the time to share this with us today. And it’s really cool how your, your spine journey has, um, you know, created a whole new world.

Life for yourself in terms of your career and and how you’ve how you how you go through life. Like that’s that’s that’s uh, Taking lemons and making lemonade and I think out of out of what you’ve done and your your perseverance your your You know unwillingness to give up unwillingness to take no for an answer Driving you to find solutions.

That is fantastic. And I just I applaud you You’re inspiring and it’s it’s awesome 

Kerri Webb: Thank you so much for having me. You know, I’ve been practicing for 24 years now, and I feel just as fiery and as passionate as ever about helping inspire people, um, to get rid of their back pain and to get rid of their injuries.

Dr. Rita Roy: At the National Spine Health Foundation, something we believe in most is is providing hope for recovery through sharing stories of success and expertise. It isn’t always easy to find someone to relate to, even though a hundred million adults suffer from neck or low back pain each year. To hear more stories of spinal champion recovery and to access educational materials about spine health, visit us at spinehealth.

org. If you’re interested in supporting our show financially, you can contribute at the link provided. Thank you for listening.