Dr. Jerry Mantonya's Chiropractic Story

JERRY A. MANTONYA
My Chiropractic Story

At the age of two I came down with a kidney infection. I was taken to the doctor and given sulfa to kill the infection, as antibiotics were not in use yet. My parents were not told to give me a lot of fluids with the sulfa and the drug plugged up my kidneys. So now I had Nephrosis and Nephritis. I swelled up like a balloon. The doctors told my parents I would probably not live. (I told this story once in a lecture and a patient came to me after the lecture and said she was a nurse who worked in a hospital with children with this type of condition and she said that it is true that these children rarely did live.)

I was in this condition for six months. My parents told me they either held me 24 hours per day or propped me up with pillows as I would have drowned in my own fluids if they had laid me down. (I have no pictures of myself during this time, as my parents did not want to be reminded what I looked like in this condition after I died.) Finally the crisis came. My mother sent word to my father at work (Owens Corning Fiberglass) and she took me to the hospital. They tapped my bladder to drain some of the fluid and told my mother that I probably would not live through the night.

They had been praying for my healing and their minister told them they must now pray for “His Will” to be done. I am told it was then that things changed. I started urinating so fast that they could not catch it. I peed so much that it went through the mattress and onto the floor. Needless to say my parents laughed. The doctors said that I could not leave but my mother said she was taking me home anyway. And she did.

Needless to say that this ordeal did damage to my kidneys. I spilled albumin protein in my urine. Albumin is measured in a +,++,+++,++++. I carried a ++. This was normal for me. Over the next several years I would go to the doctor about every six months and get checked and they finally said they could do nothing. My mother was trying everything. She took me to a massage therapist, tried different herbs and vitamins. (My father even told me that they had heard that making a tea out of cow patties was good for the kidneys. He told me they went as far as drying them in the oven to make the tea when he finally said no. I am grateful to him for that. Studying herbs I have also heard that this is a remedy for kidney problems. I have never recommended it though.)

My uncle (my father's brother) had gone to Palmer Chiropractic College in the mid twenties as the results he received from a Chiropractor with some severe fits that he had. (His mother had been told to institutionalize him but one adjustment relieved him of his problem.) Even though he quit practicing during the depression he would frequently work on the family. We also would go to Dr. Victor Martindale for adjustments. When I was 13 years old my mother was talking to Dr. Martindale about my kidneys and he said he thought he could help. I went through a series of adjustments and for the first time since I was two years old my kidneys were not spilling albumin. We went back to the Medical Doctor and were afraid to tell him about the Chiropractor and therefore he felt he had finally healed me even though he had done nothing. My senior year of high school I got Mono and the heavy disease that it is put a strain on my kidneys. I started spilling a trace of albumin. I did not go back to Dr. Martindale to have it straightened up again but only on occasion went when my back hurt. (Call me a slow learner)

I later decided to become a Chiropractor. I started Palmer College of Chiropractic in January 1967. I was doing very well when halfway through the first quarter I started getting sick. I started vomiting, became dehydrated and swelled up like a balloon. They put me in the hospital and I was holding thirty pounds of fluid and my charted albumin count was off the chart. I called my mother and she came immediately. I will never forget the horror on her face as she walked through that hospital room door. She could see her baby boy in his deathbed again. They chartered a private plane and flew me home. When I entered Licking Memorial Hospital I was spilling more Albumin than had ever been recorded at the hospital. I was in the hospital a total of 8 weeks. They did an exploratory surgery and found I had peritonitis and gave me cortisone. When they were making the decision to operate, three doctors said they must operate to see what is going on and two doctors argued that I would not make it though the surgery because of all the protein I was spilling. It was at this point that my parents were told that I would be in and out of the hospital the rest of my life until I finally gave up and died. (The specialist that told my parents this was about ten years older than I was and he died about ten years later.)

I spent the next year recuperating and going to Dr. Martindale for adjustments. When I got out of the hospital I was holding about 10 pounds of fluid and spilling +++ Albumin. Because of the surgery Dr. Martindale was not able to adjust my mid and lower back for several weeks while waiting for the incision to heal. He would work on my neck and upper back only. During that time my parents decided to go to Rice Lake in Canada on vacation and I went along. While in Canada I started to hold more fluid and decided I needed to find a Chiropractor. I found one and he adjusted the mid back in the area that has the nerve supply going to the kidneys and I lost five pounds of fluid that day. I came back to Dr. Martindale and told him to adjust that area. Within six weeks all the fluid was gone and the albumin was negative.

I got back to Palmer College in January 1968. Things were good until halfway through Palmer I started swelling up again. I was working two jobs on top of going to school. I dropped out of school for that quarter and quit the jobs and spent time recuperating for five weeks. I got an adjustment everyday, even Sundays. We found that I was holding the adjustment except at the kidney area. As the Kidneys improved, I started to hold the adjustment in that area. It had been shown that if there is an organic problem with an organ that there is a reaction that will pull the vertebra involved with that organ out of alignment. I got back in school and graduated.

I later got involved with nutrition. Nutrition helped improve my health but it was Chiropractic that saved my life. If you have a vertebra out of alignment and interfering with the nerve (life) flow, you can take all the nutrition you want but the body can not utilize it.

I have been so blessed to have been guided into this work. My purpose in life is two fold. One, to help as many people as possible to live longer, healthier and happier lives. Two, to help my children find their purpose so they may have as fun and fulfilling a life as my wife Judy and I have.

May God Bless.

Dr. Jerry Mantonya
CHIROPRACTOR