By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
Warning: What you are about to read may be beneficial to your health.
It started with an accident – and honestly, it was an accident.
“My mom and dad hit a deer with their car,” said 58-year-old Dr. Vincent Tomar. “When a doctor didn’t give them relief, they went to a chiropractor. The result basically put a bug in my head.”
But there was more.
Dr Vincent Tomar
During midterm exams as a student at the University of Southern Colorado, Tomar developed pain in his arm that spread to his neck.
“I couldn’t study, I couldn’t concentrate, I felt like a wild dog.”
And as luck would have it, his roommate begged him to visit a sip – chiropractor – who happened to be his father.
“It only took three visits and the pain was gone,” Tomar said. “I changed majors and decided to become a chiropractor.”
Tomar studied engineering for two years – and has now been introduced to physiology and biology.
Two more years followed in Southern Colorado and another four at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa.
“Without summer breaks,” he recalled.
Leaving Colorado also meant Tomar gave up his very risky summer job – a rafting instructor in Canyon City on the Arkansas River.
“I saw an ad in the newspaper,” he said, “and just responded to it.”
So how did the Detroit native end up in northern Kentucky?
“I got married in Iowa,” he said, “I met my wife in college, and she’s from Iowa.”
And you know – they honeymooned in Kentucky – they liked it so much that they decided to call it home.
dr Tomar worked as an associate in Indiana for three months, he says, and opened his own practice in 1995 at his current location — on Mall Road.
“That’s when the real work started,” he said.
“For about three years, I was really just trying to do business. I went to Home-a-Rama, had conversations, met people who might need help. Whatever it took to get her into my office.”
Apparently the talking worked, Dr. Tomar says he sees nearly 5,000 patients annually, ranging in age from about 30 to 60 years.
“I remember a woman came in for lower back pain,” he said. “She got better and kept coming back. A year later she told me she was having trouble having a baby. After our visits she became pregnant. Her menstrual cycle came back.”
Enjoy Colorado – as a rafting instructor
Delivering babies certainly wasn’t studied in medical school.
And yes, dr. Tomar had his time with the stars.
“I had a Riverbend security guard as a patient,” he said. “He came in one day and said, ‘Doc, Jimmy Buffet wants a treatment.'”
So the good doctor rushes to Riverbend and is told by Buffett, “I need a general adjustment.”
One problem – we didn’t have a table, Tomar recalled.
“I adjusted him on the couch and on the floor.”
Tomar didn’t stay for the performance but he must have done a good job because security came back a few months later with another request.
The Boston group needed Dr. tomar
“I’ve had more requests,” he said, “but it’s hard to leave my regulars.”
Tomar said what’s really the hardest thing about his job – “dealing with insurance companies.”
That’s nowhere near back pain—that Dr. Tomar copes much easier.
dr Vincent Tomar directs Back to Health Chiropractic at 8178 Mall Road, Florence.
