Keep your reluctant, hardworking family man on his feet.
My entire life my father has been a figure of strength and masculinity. At six foot five inches tall and 230 pounds, with one full beard and two callused hands he embodies the hardworking Alaskan family man more than anyone I have ever met before. As a lifetime Alaskan I have noticed a few similarities between many of the Alaskan men that fit my fathers description. Aside from the Carhartt’s and work boots, most of these men carry a heavy weight not on their shoulders, but on their bodies. This weight is from many years of manual labor and constantly demanding too much from their bodies. While most of these men have well paying jobs with health insurance, for some reason the mere fact that their family always comes first means that they always come last. It seems their constant and only motivation is their family’s happiness and wellbeing, so much so to the point that they forget about their own.
On my fathers recent time off of the North Slope, I noticed that some things about him seemed off. He was taking longer to get out of his chair, work around the house seemed to be more taxing, and what troubled me the most was how much he seemed to lean his body on the wall as he walked down a hallway. Convinced this was more than me just being the family worrier, I decided to talk to my dad to tell him why I think he should go to our chiropractor in Eagle River to see what is going on with his back pain. Aside from gaining pain relief, the reasons I used to convince him to go are:
- Remind him he has a growing family to take care of.
With four growing Grandchildren, he needs to be able to keep up with them to be apart of their lives. He loves his Grandkids and lives near them so that he can see them almost everyday. Once I pointed out that he wont be able to wrestle with them or carry them around if his back is hurting he saw a good reason to go to our Eagle River Chiropractor.
- He will need his body healthy and happy to run his business.
My father recently started a HydroSeeding business that requires manual labor, heavy lifting and the use of heavy machinery. Without a healthy spine and body, operating this business will become nearly impossible.
- If he is suffering, his marriage is likely going to suffer too.
My parents love to travel, throw parties and go to social events. With my fathers new lack of energy and motivation to do much of anything other than the necessities in life, they haven’t been able to do all the fun things that they love to do together on his time off of the slope. He loves taking my mom out to dinner, to concerts and on vacation so the idea that his back pain could keep him from all of that, convinced him to make the appointment and get his back pain checked out.
Check back next week to learn how to help your moody brother with bad acne!
