Deseret, Cactus, & Texas: Blessings of a Broken Neck

We had a man speak today in church who had recently moved from So Cal where he worked as a SW engineer for Northrop Grumman. They moved here to find a more affordable place to raise their family. I didn't get a chance to ask which location but he said in his talk it was in the LA area. Before he and his wife spoke today in church I had always described him to Felicia as the guy with no neck. Today we discovered why he looks that way.

Apparently while he was in college he started having neck pain. No doctors seemed to be able to diagnose why. The pain would come and go but could be severe. He had to take finals in school kneeling down because he couldn't bend his neck to look down at the papers. He was able to get a job at Northrop. He found that chiropractors could relieve his pain and he started going in for adjustments 3 times a week. He would need to arrange for chiropractors if he ever went on business travel. He met his wife and got married at 29. About two years after getting married the pain got worse and he was glad he had a wife to help him through it. At some point he had an MRI which somehow failed to detect a 2.5" tumor on his neck spinal column. At an adjustment session with the chiropractor the chiropractor broke his neck.

He did not elaborate on the healing process after this but said the pain was very intense and it took a long time to recover. He said that faith in the Lord and prayers helped him get through the ordeal. He was very complimentary of Northrop Grumman and how patient they were during his recovery and he said they were kind enough to continue to pay him during that recovery period. He said he has often wondered why this was happening to him, but he recognized that through it his faith grew and he saw many ways he was blessed to deal with it.

Haley is wanting to take out her endowments soon at the Brigham City Temple. The temple is closed for maintenance in March so it will need to be in April after Felicia and I return from Hawaii.