"Each patient carries his own doctor inside him. They come to us knowing the truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to work."

-Albert Schweitzer, M.D.

When Vicki, was about one year old, she was sitting on the couch with her sister. I heard a loud noise and found Vicki laying on the floor, unconscious, blue and barely breathing. I picked her up, but couldn’t get her to respond. I rushed her to the emergency room where it was concluded that she may have had a concussion.

Roughly three months later another "spell" occurred. I got to her room just in time to see her collapse. Again, she had blue lips and was barely breathing. I recognized the symptoms from the previous spell a few months earlier.

The next spell came only about one month later. While at a pool party, Vicki literally collapsed in my arms. She again turned blue and was barely breathing. The doctor at the emergency room dismissed us after some basic checks.

We went back to our pediatrician and he ordered an EEG and blood work. Everything came back negative, no explanations. Meanwhile the spells occurred with greater frequency. We learned the hard way to avoid certain things that would trigger the spells. 1. Don’t ever wake her up too early. Adequate rest was really important. 2. Avoid excessive heat. Not easy to do in Southern Arizona. 3. Always carry along some kind of a sweetened drink (Tang or Koolaid) as it helped to stabilize her after a spell. 4. Always watch for blue lips. It was the first sign just before collapse and loss of consciousness. We literally had to change our lifestyle in order to accommodate our sick child. I remember taking my other child to her ball games and having to stay in the car with the air conditioning on because the heat would bring on Vicki’s spells.

Seeking answers, we switched pediatricians. This meant more blood work, another sleep deprivation EEG and a four-month wait to see the only pediatric neurologist in southern Arizona at UMC in Tucson. He immediately said Vicki seemed to have a vagus nerve problem. He then referred us to the cardiology department. If her heart checked out okay, then he would treat her for vagus nerve trouble. The treatment that he indicated was surgery to cut the vagus nerve that would hopefully stop the trouble.

As soon as the neurologist said "vagus nerve", my husband knew what to do. He had been a patient of Dr. Zerba’s. We took Vicki to Dr. Zerba and she had her first adjustment. Dr. Zerba said her atlas (first bone in the spinal column) was pushed to the left and twisted.

Vicki’s life improved immediately from the first adjustment. She suddenly wanted to talk, eat and play. She began to turn into a normal three-year-old. After all the time we spent doctoring and worrying, the answer was right in front of us, at Dr. Zerba’s fingertips. We knew we had found the answer with Dr. Zerba as we were finally seeing our child develop into the happy, carefree little girl we had always prayed for.

It was a slow process. If Vicki fell or got bumped, the atlas vertebra would slip out of place and put pressure on the nerve and she would have another spell. Over time her body has healed and as the atlas stayed in proper alignment she became stronger and healthier. She is now almost eight years old and it is just a memory for all of us. We don’t worry about spells or trigger factors. She continues to be adjusted once a week to maintain good health.

Our family is very grateful to Dr. Zerba for all his guidance, care and effort for Vicki. He offered an easy, non-invasive solution to what could have been a very family.

Amy

I have had back problems for over 25 years! But nothing like the problem that occurred on January 14, 2003. I was playing with my 6-year-old grandson when I felt a pain in my lower back that caused me to stop and sit down. The next day while showering, I bent down to wash my feet and the pain was so intense that I could not straighten up! I crawled from the shower to my bed and experienced the worst pain I had ever endured! We drove back to Sierra Vista from Palm Springs, California two days later. When we arrived home, I had to be helped out of our RV.

Two days later, I went to see our primary care physician and he gave me pain pills and said to stay on my back and rest. The pain and my lack of mobility worsened and I was only able to sleep two to four hours each night. I suffered for a week more and decided to see a chiropractor. It was on a Sunday, January 26, 2003 when a patient of Dr. Zerba's called him to see if he would see me. He was told of my condition, called me back and said to meet him at his office in 30 minutes. That was the longest 30 minutes of my life!

Dr. Zerba treated me that morning and has been treating me since. My pain slowly subsided over the next two weeks and my mobility started returning. After seven weeks, I was pain free.

I am in much better health then before my back was damaged and I owe it all to Dr. Zerba. He has a patient for the rest of my life. We believe in him so much that my wife is a patient and we have referred others to his great care.

Thank you Dr. Zerba and your great, caring staff.

I came to see Dr. Zerba because I started having really bad headaches. I had frequent bronchitis, allergy problems, and sinus infections. The headaches occurred on a daily basis and I had migraines at least once a month. The bronchitis would start in the fall when the heads on the weeds would come up. Whenever the weather would change my allergies and sinuses would start up. I took lots of medicine. I would go to the hospital and they would always give me something to take.

I provide childcare in my home and I found it was hard to take care of the children properly because you can't put as much time and effort into it as you do when you are healthy. I cared for Dr. Zerba's children and I noticed his children were healthier than the other children I watched. So, I decided to give chiropractic a try.

My results have been amazing. I started feeling much better almost immediately. I no longer have the daily headaches or the migraines. The change of weather no longer triggers allergies and I haven't had bronchitis in years. I'm a 56 year-old woman and I can outdo these 30 year-old women at the church.

One thing I wasn't expecting was how healthy I have become. I rarely get sick anymore and I don't get what the children have. I get adjusted every two weeks and have done this for years.

I tell everybody when they start complaining of health problems to go see a chiropractor. Of course I have a preference of chiropractors. I had one friend who had made an appointment to see another chiropractor and I told her about my experience with Dr. Zerba and she cancelled her appointment and came in to see Clyde instead!

Connie

Aaron

I consulted Dr. Zerba as a result of a “health day” I attended at work. Dr. Zerba found a big imbalance in my spine and from a simple test he determined that when I stood I carried 40 pounds more weight on one side than the other. I wanted to learn why. I was also experiencing lower back pain. I had symptoms which occurred daily at a severe level of pain. I was fatigued and unable to be as active as I wanted. I became frustrated because I was often tired and just did not feel good! I wanted to try an approach that did not involve taking medications.

I have been very impressed with Dr. Zerba and his staff. My experience here has been pleasant. I feel comfortable.

My results have been great! I now have much more energy, less pain, improved range of motion in my neck, arms and upper back. I just feel better in general. I am now able to exercise again and my balance has greatly improved. I am less irritable and no longer feel frustrated. Dr. Zerba recently performed the same test which measures your weight on each side of the body, and I am now carrying less than 5 pounds more on one side, a far cry from the original 40 pounds!

Many of the improvements I have experienced, I did not expect. I was only expecting relief of my back pain. The most significant benefit, and probably the least expected, had to do with depression. I have had depression for years. The doctors determined that my depression was caused by a chemical imbalance. My body was not producing the correct chemicals. Eight years ago I went on daily medication for this problem. I was taking the highest dosage of Prozac allowed, 80 milligrams, and my doctor said that given the fact that my condition was chronic, that it was caused by a chemical imbalance, and that I had been on medication for so long, I would have to take medication for the rest of my life. This idea was very disturbing and I was concerned with the long-term effects of medication. After I began getting adjusted, only six months ago, I started gradually decreasing the medication, with permission of my medical doctor, until I completely stopped taking it four weeks ago. This has literally changed my life!

I tell everyone I know about my chiropractic experience. Now that I am better informed and have more knowledge and understanding about chiropractic care and how it works. I would never be without it. I am grateful I was introduced to chiropractic care.

Cindy

I came into the office with neck, shoulder, and lower back pain.  It had been weeks since I had been able to sleep; I was in so much pain.   I also suffered with bad headaches.  I think they were migraines, although they were never diagnosed.  My symptoms were chronic in that they were constant and occurred daily.  I had a headache almost every single day. Some days they were so severe I couldn’t function for hours. 

Most of the time, I kept on doing the things I needed to do in my life. I basically learned to deal with the constant pain and symptoms. I figured I was just going to have to live with these symptoms the rest of my life.  I was frustrated because I didn’t want to live that way and I knew that if it continued to get worse I would no longer be able to do all the things that I did and enjoyed, which included a lot of physical activities. 

I had been to different chiropractors off and on through the years and I would feel better and then go for years without an adjustment.   I had tried many things, most of which helped, because I have always thought that my health was my responsibility.  In my employment I did a lot of work at the computer which I feel contributed to my symptoms.  I had some accidents on my horse, etc.  As a result, things got worse and worse as the years went on. 

When I moved to Sierra Vista in the 1980’s, I tried several chiropractors, felt better and again discontinued care.   After that, I went years and years without chiropractic and then finally ended up here with Dr. Zerba six years ago. 

I liked the friendly environment.  I didn’t feel pressured.  I didn’t feel like I had to come up with answers like in other offices. 

It didn’t take long to see results.  What a difference! Within weeks I was able to sleep again. I did the three times a week then the two times a week and immediately signed up for the maintenance and have been here ever since. I’m feeling great and I’m now able to live my life with quality and do the things I love to do. 

I appreciate that you can afford to stay for life with the maintenance plan.   In other offices it didn’t matter that you had been coming for years.  It was still $40.00 a session.  

When you find a good doctor, no matter what field it’s in, it is such a relief when they know what they are doing.  You literally trust them with your whole life.  After all, they have your health in their hands. 

Kim

Hi, my name is Therese. I’m 48 years old and have suffered with migraine headaches all my life. I was brought up in a time when you were always told that once you went to the chiropractor you’d have to go for the rest of your life, like it was bad to go to the chiropractor. 

If it weren’t for my brother-in-law, I still would be suffering from those ugly headaches. 

He injured his back in November and began seeing Dr. Zerba. If I hadn’t seen with my own eyes the miracle that Dr. Zerba had done for Stan (that’s a story in it’s self), I would never have believed that chiropractic worked. Stan kept telling me that I should go for my headaches, that he felt that Dr. Zerba could help me. So I went and consulted Dr. Zerba. 

It was not unusual for me to have anywhere from 3 to 4 migraines a month, and less debilitating headaches in between. They made me feel like I’d been hit by a Mack truck. I hurt everywhere. I couldn’t function.  All I wanted to do was go to sleep so the hurting would go away.  I would take some Ibuprofen and lay down and hope the pain would be gone when I awoke. 

I started seeing Dr. Zerba at the end of December 2003, and I can say with great pleasure that my headaches have been greatly reduced.  I have had only 3 severe migraines and less than 15 of the other headaches. What a blessing to be almost pain free after all this time. I can enjoy life now and not worry so much about what I can’t do, but what I can do. 

The staff at Dr. Zerba’s office is the best. They really do care about you, the person. Any question I have ever had has been answered quickly and professionally.  There isn’t anything that Dr. Zerba and his staff wouldn’t do for you.  All you have to do is ask. 

I tell everyone I know about Dr. Zerba and the amazing results that have happened to my brother-in-law, Stan, and me. My daughter is even seeing Dr. Zerba.  

I can honestly say that Dr. Zerba has made a believer out of me and I look forward to seeing him for the rest of my life.

Therese

I have had back problems ever since I could remember.   I broke my neck in high school football and then again in a car accident when I was in college.   I first started seeing chiropractors off and on when I was 30.   

I came in to see Dr. Zerba because of numbness and aching in my arms and hands.  The numbness was constant.  This would especially bother me during the night.  I would wake up in severe pain.  I lost a lot of sleep due to the extreme pain.  I thought I had carpal tunnel syndrome.  I also had severe chronic lower back pain.  I felt I was falling apart.  I was at a stage where I had to see someone.  

I was impressed with the information Dr. Zerba presented to me from the x-ray.  I had seen three other chiropractors in the past, and not one had taken an x-ray.   

I had immediate results.  The constant numbness in my arms and hands disappeared within two weeks from beginning care.  I no longer have pain in my arms at night .   I can finally get a good night sleep.  My hands don’t go completely numb when driving anymore.  We are still working on the lower back pain because it still bothers me now and then, but it is now much more manageable. 

I tell others about my experience with chiropractic.  I have referred several patients to Dr. Zerba.  I certainly believe that Chiropractic has its place.  I’m a believer!

Tom