Dr. Nancy Burns is a chiropractic physician, she operates the Bennington Center For The Healing Arts, the cards in her office say “Body, Mind, Spirit,” and that is what she treats and tries to heal.

Four or five years ago, I was devoted to holistic health care, I did not go to medical doctors or pharmacies or talk about my health. I was convinced I could cure my diabetes with herbs and diet and holistic care, and I did not even know my heart was failing, I hadn’t had a check-up in years. The fates were excited, waiting for me.

. Several years ago, a wonderful Nurse Practitioner sat my aging butt down and told me some hard truth: my blood was not healthy, I needed to face the reality of my illness and my age and treat it before something awful happened. And then something awful happened, I nearly died and was rushed into Open Heart Surgery.

I decided that was the last awful thing that was going to happen to me for awhile, I have a lot to live for.

I love my wife, my blog, my books,  my farm, my work, my photos, my friends, my animals and my own words. I gave up holistic medicine, I think I blamed it’s gentle and circular ways on my near death experiences. That was easier than taking responsibility and besides, the heart stuff scared the wits out of me. I went to Western Doctors, I did what they told me too. It was the right thing to do.

My diabetes is under control, my heart is beating strongly and at a very healthy pace, my diet is excellent, I am losing weight slowly and steadily.  I go to the pharmacy often and am on a first-name basis with the techs.

Some new problems cropped up, as happens to people as they begin to get old. Some of those problems that sort of fall between the cracks of Western Medicine. The don’t care much about sciatica, however painful, and had no ideas for the shooting pains in my leg and back, caused by my flattening feet. I went to see an orthopedist, she gave me a plastic cup for my heel.

I knew I had to think again. I want to walk, I love to walk, I need to walk. I began to see that I don’t have to be so rigid about my choices, I can borrow from both, explore one and then the other.

Everyone I knew told me the most wonderful things about Dr. Nancy Burns. She is open, patient, savvy, warm, even funny. She gets to know her patients, you can talk to  her, she does magic on the things most doctors care little about and have no pills or time for. So I went to see her and was delighted to learn that all of the things everyone says about her are true. I realized I was used to getting shuttled in and out of medical offices quickly.

Nancy does talk to her patients, and she listens. She has all kinds of ideas that regular doctors do not have. She takes time to talk with me, asks me questions, answers mine.  She goes online to research problems and solutions. She got me some super-duper arches for my shoes, and the sciatica is gone. So is the plantar fascitis, the pain in my heel. When my back falls out of whack – I fall fairly often on the mud and ice – she put things back into line. I told her about the pain my statin medicines were causing, she recommended an herbal drug that has completely eliminated the pain in my legs.

I  walk as often as I’d like, and comfortably.

When things go awry, I tend to drift into old talk, thinking these things are just what happens to people my age. Nancy has no time for old talk, she simply helps me to respond to these things and fix or contain them. So she has joined the stable of medical professionals who I trust and who have transformed my life. Ironically, I think I have never been healthier. And Nancy has a dog in the office, he is a genial border collie named Casey, he turns out to be Izzy’s son. Good old Izzy, abandoned on that farm, he had a good time, there are little Izzy’s running around everywhere up here.

Dr. Burns is an advocate for holistic medicine, but she respects the constraints I live under. She hates statins, but understands I need to be on them, at least for now, my doctors are adamant, so she helps me live comfortably with them. I have swung from one pendulum of the health care system to the other, and is time to explore the middle again, cautiously. I won’t mess with my heart again, and my diabetes is under control, my numbers are normal.

But as I feel safer, and healthy, it is time to look around and think. And she is a magician. She is the only physician Maria has gone to see in years.

My recovery has taught me to be careful about declarations and extremes. Health care is a personal, organic and fluid thing. The Western practitioners can take your heart out and fix it, the mind and spirit people can help you to handle the other pains, the less dramatic, expensive and glamorous ones. The ones they call aging.

I see Dr. Burns regularly, I have enjoyed every visit. We talk about life and music and books, even about my sex life. Sometimes when I come limping in, she just smiles and shakes her head. I don’t want to know, she says. I don’t want to tell you, I respond. We laugh.

I always walk out straight. My health insurance even pays for half the cost of my visits. I told her I needed to take her picture today, and she shook her head, oh no. Why?, she asked. Because you are in my life, I said, and I have to share my life.