Jackie was a rural mail carrier — the kind of job that demands your body show up every single day, rain or shine, gravel roads or ice. In January 2025, that ice won. Her vehicle rolled over on a remote stretch of washboard road during her route, and nothing has been the same since.

What followed wasn’t just a recovery story. It was a battle on multiple fronts — against a medical system that kept calling her imaging “normal,” against a workers’ compensation process that refused to accept a telemedicine diagnosis, and against a body that looked fine on paper but could barely function in real life.

A Foundation of Trust Built Years Before the Crisis

Jackie first found Precision Chiropractic West back in 2023, well before the accident. A friend of a friend had been referred to Dr. Laurel Griffin, and Jackie decided to give it a try. At that time, she was dealing with debilitating visual migraines — episodes where her vision would suddenly cut out while driving her mail route, forcing her to pull over and wait until she could see the road again.

Under Dr. Griffin’s care with Atlas Orthogonal correction, those migraines stopped. Her posture improved. Her body stabilized. In the year before the accident, Jackie had only needed two visits. She was holding her alignment and living her life.

That existing relationship would prove critical when everything fell apart.

The Accident Changed Everything — In the Wrong Direction

The rollover forced Jackie’s atlas out of alignment in the opposite direction from her original pattern. Dr. Griffin and her team moved quickly, getting Jackie in within the first week. New imaging was taken. Corrections began. But something was different this time — the adjustment wasn’t holding. Jackie was coming in two to three times a week, living in what she described as a “bubble wrap” existence where even turning her shoulders wrong could set her back.

The symptoms were severe: dizziness, waves of heat, near-fainting episodes, a body that felt completely disconnected from what her mind knew she was capable of doing. As Jackie put it, “It’s the craziest feeling to think in your mind you’re so capable and then have a body that’s like, yeah, nice try.”

The Diagnostic Breakthrough: Digital Motion X-Ray

Standard imaging — the X-rays and MRIs ordered through the conventional medical system — all came back “normal.” A radiologist reviewed Jackie’s MRI and listed it as unremarkable. To the standard medical eye, there was nothing wrong.

But Dr. Griffin knew better. She ordered a Digital Motion X-Ray (DMX) — a video X-ray that captures the spine in real-time motion, revealing ligamentous injuries and instabilities that static imaging simply cannot detect. Precision Chiropractic West houses the only DMX imaging center in Iowa, and for Jackie, it changed everything.

The DMX showed exactly what was happening: bones slipping and crossing during motion, confirming the structural instability that explained every one of Jackie’s symptoms. That imaging was sent to the Centeno-Schultz Clinic, and Jackie was diagnosed with craniocervical instability (CCI) — a serious condition where the ligaments supporting the junction between the skull and upper cervical spine are damaged or compromised.

Fighting for a Diagnosis the System Didn’t Want to Accept

Here is where Jackie’s story takes a turn that too many complex injury patients will recognize. Because Jackie’s accident happened on the job, her case fell under the Department of Labor. Her initial diagnostic appointment with Centeno-Schultz was conducted via telemedicine — and the Department of Labor refused to accept the CCI diagnosis because it came through a virtual visit.

Jackie was then sent to a “second opinion” doctor in Kansas City. That physician was a hip and sports medicine doctor — not a craniocervical injury expert. Jackie spent the hour-long appointment essentially educating him about craniocervical instability and what the DMX imaging revealed.

He agreed with the diagnosis. That was a huge win — not just for Jackie’s case, but as validation of the diagnostic approach and imaging evidence that Dr. Griffin and her team had assembled.

The Power of Collaborative Care

Jackie is candid about what keeps her functioning: the collaborative care model that Dr. Griffin coordinates. Atlas Orthogonal adjustments at Precision Chiropractic West form the foundation. Physical therapy — with a therapist Dr. Griffin has specifically trained to work with CCI patients without causing further harm — provides the complementary stabilization work. As Jackie noted, the ongoing training between the clinics is critical, because traditional physical therapy approaches can actually make craniocervical instability worse.

Together, these providers can track Jackie’s condition, feel when tension is building, and intervene before things spiral. Jackie put it simply:

“I function at my best because of coming here and seeing Dr. Laurel. I don’t think I could function as much as I do without that.”

What Jackie Wants Others to Know

Perhaps the most powerful moment in Jackie’s story is her reflection on what could have happened without this care. The standard imaging said she was fine. The workers’ compensation system created obstacle after obstacle. No one in her immediate medical circle had even heard of craniocervical instability.

Without the DMX, there would have been no diagnosis. Without Dr. Griffin’s advanced imaging training and her network of collaborative providers, Jackie would have been left to navigate a complex and serious injury completely on her own — with a medical record that said nothing was wrong.

“How many people have a condition like this, and they don’t have the tools and resources? I couldn’t do it without coming here and without Laurel. There’s no way.”

Watch Jackie’s Full Story

Hear Jackie describe her journey in her own words — from the accident, through the diagnostic breakthrough, to the collaborative care that keeps her moving forward.

Has Your Imaging Been Called “Normal” While Your Symptoms Persist?

Schedule a consultation at Precision Chiropractic West in West Des Moines. We will review your case, your history, and your imaging — and tell you whether a Digital Motion X-Ray is the right next step.

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