After endless cat scans, MRIs, spinal taps, intensive nutritional therapy, hormones checks and blood screenings, the medical community could never find the cause behind 14-year-old Michelle Wozniak’s migraines.
“Doctors told me I’d have to be on Advil and Excedrin Migraine my whole life,” Wozniak said. “My family and I knew that just wasn’t an option.”
Then, through word-of-mouth, they heard of a chiropractor and decided to give it a shot. By the end of their first session, the doctor had explained a twist of her spine had been cutting off the blood flow and almost instantly, Wozniak felt relief.
“The fact that a chiropractor could explain it to me so simply and fix it in the same day, all for a copay of $20, it was almost a miracle,” she said. “I knew that was my calling. If I had discovered chiropractic years earlier, I could have saved all that time and pain. I knew I wanted to be an advocate for the profession.”
Years later, and after completing a health and exercise sports science degree with concentration in sports medicine at Colorado state University, she applied to chiropractic schools.
“At the time, I looked at board exam scores, class sizes, graduation rates, default rates on loans, and UWS stood out among all schools in every single one of those areas,” she said. “They had anything and everything I wanted.”
Her experience at UWS has lived up to her expectations.
“I’m really proud of myself for getting to this point and the best thing to have happened would be me getting to treat people in the community,” she said. “To have your patients trust you in that way, there is no more rewarding feeling.”
In the future, Wozniak plans to return to Colorado and seek an associateship to garner a better understanding of the business side. Eventually, she would like to open her own practice or work for a larger sports arena such as the Olympic Training Center in Colorado.
