photo by Sage Henneman
Jan Henneman and one of her two sons, Nash, take a break while working in their shade garden.

Jan Henneman of St. Stephen sometimes feels like Humpty Dumpty who has to be put back together again – over and over.

She is happy, however, she has a team of experts who can do just that.

Henneman suffers from a connective-tissue disease known as Ehlers-Danlos Type III. It is caused by a defect in the body's synthesis of collagen, which is a protein in connective tissue.

Collagen lends elasticity to skin, muscles, ligaments and organs. Without healthy collagen, all kinds of instabilities can result. In Henneman's case, her joints do not hold together properly and get out of whack.

It affects her hands, wrists, knees, ankles, hips, feet and spine and all of those affect one another. Caused by genetic mutations, Henneman was born with Ehlers-Danlos, although it was not diagnosed until she was in her early 20s.

For many years, she endured long-lasting bouts of severe pain, especially as the disease became more chronic. Doctors could do little or nothing for her. She did not want to live her life on pain medications. For years, she just had to learn to endure the unendurable. The pain would exhaust her, robbing her of any stamina. It would also interfere with her thinking processes and motor skills, causing her to do necessary tasks in disjointed jerks and starts. She was in a virtual state of hopelessness, knowing all too well her quality of life was declining rapidly. It took a toll on her work as a graphic designer and map-maker, and it weakened the joys of her art hobbies and her gardening.

Then, one day about seven years ago, a friend told her about a female doctor who worked as a sports chiropractor with some of the players on his semi-pro football team, the Thunderbirds. The woman's name, he said, is Dr. Sara Cuperus, and she has a clinic in Sauk Rapids. Henneman thought, "Well, why not give her a try?"

To this day, Henneman says that was one of the best decisions she ever made. She quickly moved from an attitude of painful hopelessness to huge relief and ongoing hope. With a zealot's awed fervor, Henneman speaks of Cuperus and her team as virtual miracle workers. They are accomplishing what Henneman was convinced, at one time, could never be done: put her back together.

Cuperus is owner of Chiropractic Performance Center in Sartell, which she opened in 2006 after moving her business to that city. To Henneman, the center is infinitely better than any pain pill ever devised. Without Cuperus and her team, Henneman would just keep "falling apart" periodically, like Humpty Dumpty.

"There is no cure for what I've got," she said. "Without Sara and her staff, I just wouldn't recover from some of my injuries and setbacks. All it takes is for me to take a sudden step backward, and that can blow out my knee."

Last winter, Henneman caught a very bad cold that had her coughing almost constantly. The strain from coughing affected her sciatic nerve from the tightened muscles around it. She was in horrific pain. A visit to the center resulted in massage therapy by therapist Amber Pikal and then Cuperus did chiropractic work and the Graston Technique (a specialized series of treatments for soft tissues). After two weeks of treatments, Henneman could finally cope with some basic household skills. By spring she was ready to work in her many garden beds, planting greenery, flowers and herbs. She and her family (husband Eric and sons Sage, 5, and Nash, 19 months) are also raising chickens. Henneman can do much of the work, although she must be extremely careful not to injure herself.

Her quality of life, she said, is directly attributable to her "miracle workers." They include Cuperus; Pikal; the other chiropractor at the clinic, Dr. Tanya Christensen; and office administrator Loni Henkel.

"Loni has sometimes watched my children when I go for treatments, which is so appreciated since I don't have a babysitter," Henneman said. "Everyone there works as a team. They are constantly learning new methods of treatment. They understand how everything in the body is related. One of the first things Sara did years ago was to work on my feet. They hurt so bad I couldn't hardly walk. She adjusted the bones not just in my feet but in my ankles too, and then she straightened out other areas. The feet are like the foundation of the body."

Cuperus said she loves her job because her work can make happy changes in the lives of her patients - patients like Henneman.

"I believe in treating the whole person," she said. "I know that sounds like a cliche, but it's true."

Treating a pain in the knee, she said, can involve treating the ankle or the lower back. Ailments cannot be isolated one from another, she noted, so it is important to diagnose the root causes.

Cuperus was born in Cold Spring and always knew she wanted to be a doctor. She applied to medical school but was placed on a waiting list. So she decided to go to chiropractic school in the meantime and quickly discovered she loved her studies, partly because they fit like a glove her bachelor’s degree in exercise science she'd earned in college. She earned her doctorate at Northwestern Chiropractic College, Bloomington, and opened her business in Sauk Rapids and later in Sartell.

She is certified in many areas of chiropractic, including pediatrics and in sports chiropractic. In fact, she was chosen two years ago to work with Olympic athletes at a training camp in California before the London Olympics, and she remains on a call list to help treat Olympians.

Cuperus and her husband, Shane, have a 1-year-old daughter, Claire.