On July 4, 2017, Janiela Montalvo-Linares and her husband were demolishing the flooring inside of their Woodbridge home, taking it all the way down to the joints in their son’s second-floor bedroom.

While it looked a mess, they were making progress, until Janiela made a horrible misstep.

In Spring 2020, Janiela made an appointment, but she worried too much time had passed to fix her chronic condition. Board-certified Chiropractor Dr. Kenneth May, at the Sentara Therapy Center, was undeterred.

If you’re like Janela and have been living in pain, it doesn’t have to be this way. See her whole story to learn more.

In observance of the Thanksgiving holiday, Stafford County government offices, departments and facilities will be closed on Wednesday, November 25, Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27, 2020.

The Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and the General District Court in Stafford will close at noon on Wednesday, November 25, and all day on Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27. The Circuit Court will be closed Wednesday, November 25, Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27, 2020.

The Regional Landfill and Belman Road Recycling Center in Fredericksburg will be closed only on Thursday, November 26. The landfill and recycling center will follow normal operating hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 25, and Friday, November 27. They will be open during normal operating hours of 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on both Saturday, November 28, and Sunday, November 29, 2020.

All offices of the Rappahannock Area Health District will close at noon on Wednesday, November 25, and will be closed all day on Thursday, November 26, and Friday, November 27, 2020.

The following offices and facilities will remain open:

Fire and Rescue Information (540) 658-4400

Emergency 9-1-1

Sheriff’s Office Information (540) 658-4400

Emergency 9-1-1

Magistrate (540) 659-2968

All parks will be open for the regular winter operating hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

When it comes to home improvement, Janiela Montalvo-Linares and her husband are do-it-yourselfers.

On July 4, 2017, the Woodbridge couple was demolishing the flooring, taking it all the way down to the joints in their son’s second-floor bedroom. While it looked a mess, they were making progress, until Janiela made a horrible misstep.

“I was moving around the room and instead of stepping on flooring supported by a beam, I stepped on drywall and went right through the floor,” said Janiela.

Janiela fell from the second floor to the first. Initially, she couldn’t walk. She was rushed to the hospital where she stayed for three days with a fractured tailbone, severely bruised ribs, joint damage, and a host of other cuts and bruises.

While her injuries healed, she was left with chronic pain.

“The pain was always there. I couldn’t stand or sit for more than 30 minutes without being in agony. Bending, exercising, walking for long periods of time hurt. This went on for years,” she says.

Janiela had gone to other doctors, but their solutions never seemed to work. That’s when her Sentara Primary Care Physician, Dr. Benedict Sales, recommended she visit board-certified Chiropractor Dr. Kenneth May, at the Sentara Therapy Center.

In Spring 2020, Janiela made an appointment, but she worried too much time had passed to fix her chronic condition.

Dr. May was undeterred.

“When dealing with any injury or condition that has been present for a long time, six months or more, it just means the recovery, or response, to care is going to be slower, not impossible,” he said.

From the start, Janiela noticed a change.

“From the beginning Dr. May was different,” says Janiela. “He started adjusting my back and pelvic area. After the first appointment, I felt a lot better.”

Dr. May showed Janiela exercises she could do on her own, outside of her appointments, which would help her muscles get stronger and help decrease her pain.

In no time, Janiela’s life started to change.

“By the fourth week of treatment, I was 100%. I’m able to walk and run for long periods of time now. The pain is gone!” she exclaimed.

In addition to helping her physically, Dr. May also supported her emotionally.

“Dr. May not only helped me with my pain, but he also helped me gain my confidence back. He encouraged me to set goals, and together we achieved them. I will be forever grateful and thankful for the help he gave me,” she says.

For his part, Dr. May is proud to have made such a profound effect on Janiela’s life.

“That’s exactly what I want to hear. It’s not only my duty to help people heal, it’s also my responsibility to help them feel like it’s possible to heal and make it a positive experience,” explains Dr. May.

If you’re like Janiela and have been living in pain, Dr. May says it doesn’t have to be this way.

“The best way to describe my role is “Primary Spine Practitioner” this means you should make me your first choice when seeking care or direction on what to do with your spinal health unless it’s an emergency situation,” explains Dr. May. “But, in my opinion, it’s never too late to say never.”

Janiela agrees.

“Don’t give up. A person shouldn’t live in pain. There are resources and treatments that work, you just have to find the right one.”

To learn if Dr. May can help you, call 703-523-1680 or visit sentara.com/therapy to schedule your appointment today.

We’re now able to post content from our website to Facebook for the first time since August.

For a reason unknown to us, we had to adjust a setting on our server in order for Facebook to accept our content once again. We’re glad to have our content back on the social media platform where it can be viewed and shared.

I’m grateful for the help I received from the Center For Cooperative Media, as well as the assistance from our web management firm, Web Publisher Pro, to help us solve this issue.

Prior to our hiatus, posts appeared on our Facebook page automatically.  As we move forward, we’ll begin posting new content to Facebook slowly and gauge what type of content is performing best.

In other news, I’ve reduced the number of links that appear in our weekday evening news email. This was an effort to reduce redundancy, as any of the articles are repeats from previous days.

Our news emails are one of the most popular ways for our readers to access our content, so it’s very important to me that our news emails provide a convenient, effective, and informative user experience.

Our news email subscription list has grown 300% since April, now reaching more than 14,000 users who have signed up to receive our news.

And finally, as we approach the end of the year, many businesses are approaching and asking for advertising information as they plan their advertising budgets for 2021. We’re putting the finishing touches on our new media kit, which hasn’t been updated since 2019, and we expect it will include a larger focus on reaching our audience via email.

Thank you to our advertisers and paid subscribers who support our work. If you haven’t already subscribed, click this link and subscribe today. As always, feel free to comment below or sent me an email to let me know what you think of our service.

With just one link posted to our Community Bulletin Board section, we sent OmniRide nearly 200 clicks in 24 hours.

We posted this link: OmniRide service change Monday, November 2 to the bulletin board, which appears in our weekday evening newsletter, detailing an upcoming service change OmniRide passengers need to know about.

The link took readers from our email newsletter right to OmniRide’s website — to the source —  where they can get the important information they need.

These are numbers that beat many social media advertising campaigns that are run over the course of multiple weeks — and we do it for a fraction of the price the social media platforms charge.

For a limited time, you, too, can post to the Community Bulletin Board for just $49, a $250 savings. Use this link to post: potomaclocal.com/submit-a-press-release

It’s great to use if you’re selling an item, or use it to list restaurant specials. You can use it for company announcements, or to sell tickets for an event, post a coupon, or for any other piece of content you can think of to grow your business.

Gambling is a recreational activity for many taxpayers, and as one might expect, the government takes a cut if you win and won’t allow you to claim a loss in excess of your winnings.

Sentara Healthcare has always been committed to improving health every day, for all people.

OmniRide’s Fall Service Change will take effect on Monday, November 2, and will include changes to most routes.

A federal tax credit for the purchase and installation costs of a residential solar system is fading away. After being 30% of the cost for several years through 2019, the credit amount drops to 26% in 2020 and then 22% in 2021, the final year of the credit.