Earlier this week I had a patient come into the office and ask me, do you ever get sick of treating back pain and listening to the same complaints all day long.  I have thought about this in my head before but I have never had to actually articulate an answer for someone on the fly.

So I answered in the moment but I have been thinking about this for the past couple of days, most people have heard of an elevator speech but I felt like this kind of put me on the spot to indicate my practice and purpose in a 20 second segment.

If you were to work in an office and tell yourself that you treat back pain and headaches all day, I think you would drive yourself crazy and your career as a health care professional would not be very long as your days would begin to get very mundane and boring.

I have to walk in everyday and tell myself that I treat people.  Everyone is unique with an injury or pain that is unique to them.  You may have worked in the yard too long, sat in a desk chair all day or God forbid… slept funny.  Everyone has a different story as to why they in the office, I want to know that story.  Oh, I’m going to try and help you with your condition and pain but I want to get to know my patients as human beings.

I ask about patient’s weekends, hobbies, kids, grandkids and parents.  I follow obituaries to see if anyone I know or patient’s relations are written about.  This is just who I am as a person, if I ask about something that offends you (trust me there are a lot of topics these days), I’m going to move from that topic quick.  I can find common ground with just about anyone but the one thing I refuse to do is to categorize people based on the condition that they present in the office with.

I come from a family of story tellers, a few of my uncles are the best story tellers I know.  I grew up laughing with family and self deprivation stories and jokes.  Stories and jokes are appreciated in the office, it can paint a good picture of who you are as a person.  There is also a therapeutic effect to just talking and venting about life and your pain.  I never really even thought about this through school, but Dr. Wakefield told me that there is a therapeutic effect to conversation.  We treat people and pain but they will feel better leaving the office if they can have a simple 10-15 minute conversation with someone that is going to just listen and try to help them through the situation that they are in.

So when you come into the office, yes I am going to talk to you about your pain and the reason why you are in the office, but I will quickly divert to you as a person as soon as there is a clear indication as to what exactly is going on with you physically. I will divert to weekend plans, shopping lists and kids activities.  Are you traveling somewhere, road construction your just drove through and what is on sale at Tractor Supply.  I truly want to know this about you.

Not only is it therapeutic for you as a patient but it will help me form an idea of who you are as a person.  I’m not from central Nebraska originally, but I have learned more about the agricultural communities in the past 9 years than I have ever wanted to know and you know how that manages to happen.  Just let the farmer vent, it’s good for them and I learn something.

Treat the person, listen to the person and the pain will take care of itself with some conversation and simple treatment.

Ever since I started into practice Kristina has always told me that I need to take a day off every once in a while for my own personal sanity.  I always scoffed at her saying that if she is at work; I might as well be putting in the hours as well.

This past Friday, I did the unthinkable.  I actually listened to her.  I woke up not feeling 100%, don’t worry, no fever, no sore throat, no cough, just not feeling “it.” I have had numerous stress points with the business and in life the past couple of weeks and I have just been feeling drained.  Haven’t been sleeping well and anxiety has started to creep into my mind.

I decided to only work a half a day this past Friday and use the afternoon to catch up with some R&R.  This is literally the first time that I have been in practice that I took a day/afternoon off without having something planned.  When I normally take a day off it is for another commitment, family travel, golf tournament or chiropractic obligation.  Always something to do but never relaxing as it should be.

The past couple of months have been a little “batty,” literally, I just had one in my Kearney office.  Dealing with running a business during the COVID-19, we are looking at buildings in Kearney, as we feel that we have outgrown the space and the day-to-day stress of having a two year old and a pregnant wife.

The stress and anxiety of life was starting to catch up with me.  Sleep has always been a little bit of an issue for me; I don’t know how to turn my mind off.  Whether it’s an inkling of not feeling well, your mind goes straight to “do I have COVID,” to making decisions to spend a lot of money for years to come on a newer vehicle or a building that I can work in for years to come. P.S. the building fell through.

So when the phone was ringing for Friday afternoon appointments, I felt terrible but it ultimately it came down to taking care of myself and getting out of the office for a little bit.  The old saying, that if you don’t take care of yourself, you will never be able to take care of your patients.

I never thought I had trouble dealing with stress, but as the years go it appears that the stress of owning my own practice has a different toll on me personally.  I need to learn how to cope with this on a day-to-day level but it will be an ever evolving process for me.

With all of this being said, I felt much better over the weekend with the amount of sleep that I was able to get and as of today feel about as normal as I ever do.  So if you ever see that I am taking a random Friday or Monday off, it may just be for a day of rest and relaxation, but conventions and family obligations also fall into the calendar as well.

I appreciate everyone’s patience last Friday and look forward to getting back to the grind this week and for the weeks to come.

From chiropractic care, to acupuncture and DOT Physicals we look forward to seeing everyone soon, stay healthy and get plenty of rest in these weird times.

I have got to thinking in the past couple of weeks, with all of the craziness that is going on, what exactly do patients want from a chiropractor and why do they seek care.  Recently, patients have been bringing in treatment plans from other offices in the area and they ask me to explain them for them.  I have to be completely honest, I have no idea how to explain some of these plans to people.  30 visits for lower back pain with a set of x-rays that show a little bit of osteoarthritis, in my mind, does not justify a six month treatment plan.

The whole premise of healthcare is to solve a problem and to see patients as needed when problems arise.  I work with this thought in the back of my mind every day.  When a patient walks into the office, I plan on treating the person until they are either better or they need to be referred out.  For an office to lay out a six month treatment plan for simple problems is irresponsible in my opinion.

Patients respond differently to different problems.  If a 28 year old comes in with low back pain and then a 65 year old walks in with the same problem, the younger person should respond quicker with fewer visits.  It’s not a given but generally speaking this is normally the case.

I’m going to talk in generalities for a moment.  Why exactly do 99% of patients seek care from a chiropractor….let me give you a hint….it’s because pain/discomfort is involved.  The vast majority of people that seek care are looking for pain relief and have no desire to come into an office for the rest of their lives.

If you are seeking care from a chiropractor and the first two visits involve x-rays and a consult as to why you need care for the next year and no adjustment or some sort of care, you may want to second guess care at that particular office.

Very rarely, will you see a patient that comes in that just likes to be adjusted.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not opposed to this but it’s just not the typical person that comes in.  Is there evidence out there that chiropractic care can help the immune system and every other medical condition….maybe, the research is very mixed at best.  I’m not resting the life of my practice on this research.  I will be sticking to pain relief and control.

Not all problems are solvable, age and condition can play a huge part but for the majority of people we can help to some degree.  As I have always said, if we can’t help you we won’t drag the treatment on.

In finishing, seriously what do patient want when you seek chiropractic care.  I would almost bet that the majority of people are seeking some sort of pain relief and are not looking for a huge treatment plan that will take month of time and more money than most are willing to spend.  Every office is different and treatments can vary from office to office, but if you walk into an office and you walk out with a treatment plan that goes for 6 months and costs thousands of dollars, feel free to give us a call, I’m sure we can save you time and money.

I am going to write this with a bit of trepidation.  The month of April was not a good month for Spracklin Chiropractic, but it was not a good month for any business.  We were never forced to close down and are still kind of holding our breath in hopes that we can continue with business as normal the rest of the year.

Ever since the calendar changed to May, the office has been kind of crazy.  Numerous people have indicated that they didn’t know that we were even open.  Once patients started to figure out that we were open for business as normal, the flood gates opened.  I’m not entirely sure if this is just a rebound from the slow month in April or if this is the new normal that I’m going to have to get used to.

I’ve always made the argument that the ideal office would be steady but not crazy.  The past couple of weeks have been bordering on crazy.  I like to get to know my patients and to talk for a few moments, to catch up with symptoms and life in general.  Good banter can be good for the soul along with a moment or two of laughter.  This is the environment that I like to create at the offices.

Being able to walk out of the office at night and not have to worry about catching up with paperwork is the ideal situation. I have the ability to do paperwork from home but I don’t necessary like doing that because having a 2 year old crawling over you while trying to be productive with paperwork is a little difficult.

At some point in every chiropractor’s career, you think that you may want to run a high volume practice.  It has run through my mind as well, but I ultimately come back to wanting to have a nice flow and getting to know people while not running around with my head cut off.  I know there is a way to do it, but systems that you would have to put in place are just not a big priority for me at this time.

So, when you call and see if we accept walk-ins, yes we do.  I like to keep a good flow to the offices and for the most part we do a good job with it, but recently I have been walking out shaking my head because between walk-ins and scheduled appointments, it seems that the schedule has been filling up more than normal.  We do accommodate numerous circumstances but recently you may need to bear with us a little bit as we will make it work, it just may take a little finagling.

While I hope that the craziness continues and I can adjust to the new normal, just know that I have no desire to herd people through the office and run a high volume practice.  I hope to continue to have the personal relationships that I have created and run a sane office.  Sanity will win out in this, but I, personally, am having to work through some mental blocks to make sure I can make it happen.

We look forward to seeing everyone through the craziness and hopefully everyone is staying sane and safe.

I was asked a couple of weeks ago if I could explain the toll on the business and the ongoing emotions that go along with the pandemic. I’m going to try and explain with as much detail as I can without getting into a lot of the business details.

I think most businesses will have the same general timeline when it comes to how the virus affected them.  Mid-March the bottom literally fell out.  I will say that it was the best start to a year that I have had and then the third week of March….boom, literally in one week we were down roughly 60-70% when it comes to patient visits.  Sure, it’s not as if we had no one coming in the door but I haven’t been that slow in a very long time.

It gave me a lot of solace after talking with local colleagues and classmates from around the country and everyone was experiencing the same thing.  Everyone that I talked to was either forced to closed due to government mandates or patient visits had fallen off a cliff.  I had even talked to some local chiropractors considering closing down for a while because they did not want to be the business or clinic that was linked to numerous positive cases.

The emotions that go along with this are familiar with anyone that has a pulse that this point.  Scared, frustrated, fearful and unknowing are all words that come to mind.  Everyone was probably going through these exact emotions.  We did not know what was coming the next day, was the state going to step in and shut down chiropractic offices, were myself or Marty or Carol going to get sick, was there going to be an imminent health threat to myself or my family.  All of these things were going through my mind.

I told myself and the girls in the middle of March that we were going to need to be prepared to shut down for 2 weeks at some point and that is kind of the contingency plan that we were going to lay out.  Take each day at a time and stay healthy.  Patients will come back in when they feel safe or need to get back in.  I had enough of a cushion that we did not need to lay anyone off or file for unemployment, which was my number one fear.  As a small business owner, as much as you need to provide for yourself, you are also a lifeline for your workers as well, but we ultimately did not need to resort to this.

The end of March and April were actually very strange times around the office.  Numbers were WAY down and collections were reflective of that.  The crazy thing is that May was an awesome month and I hope that the office can put the worst behind us and keep moving forward.  It is still quite difficult to project how the next couple of months will go but in my mind I continue to tell myself to take it one day at a time, to stay healthy and keep the cleanest environment that I can in both of the offices.

With all this being said, we look forward to continue to serve the communities of Minden and Kearney along with numerous surround towns.  We will continue to take precautions (masks & disinfecting constantly) while trying to provide the highest level of care that we are able to provide.  The COVID-19 pandemic has put a lot of things into perspective for myself and the business.  Personal health and safety will come first and foremost for my family and for me.  If there is ever illness in the office or in our families just know that we will take every precaution to protect ourselves and our patients, including shutting down if need by.

We look forward to finding a new normal and hope that June is another exceptional month for Spracklin Chiropractic.

When I graduated from chiropractic school I thought that I had this whole chiropractic thing figured out, but come to find out that could not be further from the truth.  This whole worldwide pandemic thing has made me kind of step back and evaluate the current state of the practice and what I can do to improve.

The number one thing that the past couple of weeks have exposed is that you better know where you stand in this world because there is no quick fix for a couple of terrible weeks.  I would be lying to you if you would have asked me 6-8 weeks ago where I would be at and I thought everything was going to be fine but honestly I was scared out of my mind….still am to a certain degree.

I am very much a control person and at about the 2-3 week mark, I started to figure out that you can’t force people to come into the office, you can create the illusion that everything is normal in the world and you certainly cannot pretend that you know what the next day will bring.

But the things that I can control are how much time I spend with each patient, the quality of care that is delivered and the safety/cleanliness of the environment in the office.  With all of this being determined, quality adjustments are becoming a lost art in the chiropractic profession, so I have started to make a conscious decision to work on and improve my adjusting skills.

I want to become the best adjuster in the area, sure there are going to be better people when it comes to rehab or nutrition or other aspects that the chiropractic profession has taken.  Sure there will be people that can get everything to move on every visit, but I’m striving to become the best adjuster with the most comfortable results. I try to walk that fine line between a comfortable adjustment and not making the patient sore/miserable after the treatment, yet still get results.

I’m a chiropractor that loves to adjust people, I have other knowledge bases but I feel that the foundation of chiropractic is to help people with musculoskeletal pain relieve those symptoms through mobilization and manipulation of joints in the human body.  There are numerous things that we can do to help calm pain through therapies and stretching but I’m starting to become a firm believer that the adjustment is a major player in pain relief.

Patient visits have fluctuated drastically over the past 2 months but I can honestly say that the setup and delivery of adjustments have improved immensely recently.  Results have followed in my opinion.  The patients that have come into the door, I feel, have been seeing some great results.  Whether it be for headaches or lower back pain, people are getting better.

A positive attitude and a quality adjustment can go a long way in improving musculoskeletal pain and discomfort.  While I don’t claim to cure everything under the sun, our office is able to help quite of few different conditions.

While concentrating on things that I can control, I truly believe that working diligently on things that you can control and making sure that you spend time and energy on things that you can actually make a difference is a wonderful feeling.  So while things may be getting back to normal, a new normal may not be found for a while until everyone can start to feel comfortable again.

We will continue to work diligently controlling the things that we can control in the office, whether it be the best possible adjustment that you can receive, a clean and sanitary table or having a quality conversation with people that come in the door, we will continue to try to control the things that we are able to control and manage the things that are out of our hands.

These are strange times and most chiropractors have plenty of time on their hands, ads pop up all the time for the next great practice building tool and how to build your patient base during a pandemic, don’t sell out. I’m going to give a little piece of advice for all of the young chiropractors, you are going to get pulled in all sorts of different directions over the course of your career, three simple little words can go a long way…..Don’t Do It.

As times get tough, you will begin to see ads pop up from all sorts of people regarding building your practice whether it be through coaching, management companies or other things that are meant to take your money and time with no guarantee of more patients in the door.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, if you don’t feel comfortable explaining your practice philosophy to the general public or to your friends and family, don’t even think about doing it.  Sleep well at night, and ponder a little bit how you look to the general public.

Chiropractors are already the black sheep of health care at this time, we don’t need any more crazy people out there trying to influence the general public that they need more care.  In fact, the vast majority of the population would probably benefit from chiropractic care at some time in their life, but the public perception that some of us are crazy is alive and well; this doesn’t bode well to get more of the public to trust chiropractors.

Slow times are a terrible thing for me, as your mind will start wondering.  If you either build or buy a practice make damn sure that it has a strong base.  You will always be able to circle back on the patients that have built your practice.  Do a quality job from day one and those people will provide for you in the slow and busy times. These slow times can suck for everyone, but don’t sell yourself out to a management company that will probably not be able to produce the results that you are ultimately looking for.

Become really good at whatever you want to center your practice around.  Whether its adjusting, nutrition, functional medicine or any other avenue that you would like to take your career, hone those skills and run with it.  Develop this over time and continue to build a loyal patient base that trusts you.  You are not going to win every case, some people just won’t get better but patients will trust you significantly more if you don’t try to push more visits or therapies that they don’t necessarily need.

For me this is musculoskeletal pain along with DOT physicals, from low back pain to headaches.  I don’t deal with a lot of internal problems as I feel that there are other people that are better qualified to handle these things.  I said this a couple of posts ago, stay in your lane and you will find that there are plenty of people to treat that are right in that lane.  If your patients don’t know what you treat, then they will have a hard time sending other potential people your way.  Stick with what you are good at, it will pay off in the end.

Bottom line, worldwide pandemics are not fun for anyone, your mind will wonder and you will be pulled in a lot of different directions but just know that just be yourself, run a reputable practice that people trust and can fall back to in times of uncertainty.  They will appreciate the comfort of what they are getting when they walk in the door.

Difficult times make you lean back to appreciate what you have.  Over the past couple of years, Kristina and I have made some fairly savvy business decisions, from opening up our own practice, buying and selling a building in Arnold along with purchasing a practice in Minden.  With all that is going on in the world, it has made me step back to see everything that we have obtained and worked for.  I need to remember to be grateful for the opportunities that have been afforded the Spracklin family and the business.

When we purchased Wakefield Chiropractic in Minden roughly 4 years ago, I was told that I would be inheriting 2 secretaries, up to that point I had never had any employees.  Little did I know that Marty and Carol would be one of the best things to happen to me professionally. They have roughly 60 years of collective experience in the chiropractic profession and I always say that they are more my boss, the paychecks just come out of my account.  They truly are the rocks of the offices, they are more motherly figures to me at this point and I would do just about anything for them.  They have been my biggest cheerleaders the past 4 years along with the ability to bring me back to earth.  They are calming voices in my head during the rough times and I am and will forever be grateful for both of them.

Kristina and I are very lucky to have very supportive families on both sides. Our parents would be there at the drop of a hat if need be.  I have not had to lean on family and friends very much in the past financially but I have leaned on them for mental and emotional support.  I’m an over-thinker and can worry A LOT, but ultimately Kristina and I have made most of the big decisions ourselves with the emotional support from our parents.  You don’t think about these things all the time but I’m so very grateful to the family structure that Kristina and I have and for their support in all necessary times.

Having minimal debt at this point is crucial for the Spracklin family.  In the past year, I have been able to pay off my six figure student loan debt which is a huge relief off the plate. We do not carry any credit card debt and have no car payments.  That’s not to say that we are debt free but having minimal debt during a global pandemic is beneficial.  Having a solid business will hopefully allow me to ride this storm out without a lot of disruptions, it will hurt but I’m hoping to keep the hurt at a minimum.  I’m grateful to my brother-in-law (Kyle), numerous books and my family structure for encouraging us to eliminate debt ASAP.

I’m also grateful at this time that I have essentially everything that I need to continue to run the offices.  I don’t need any new equipment or new toys to help the offices.  What you see is what you get in our office, nothing fancy is needed in order to continue to provide quality care.  We recently were able to get our hands on more disinfecting/cleaning solution and hand sanitizer.  I did not do this on purpose, it was just time to reorder and I did roughly 2 weeks before everything went crazy, for having both offices stocked at this point, I’m grateful.

This COVID-19 crisis will eventually slow down or end and I’m hoping that the weeks after the major storm is over the practice will bounce back stronger than ever, with hopefully a summer bump.  There is going to be 4-8 weeks of hurt/boredom for us but that is okay because our health is the most important thing at this time.  We look forward to getting things back to normal as soon as possible but we will not jeopardize your or my health in order to speed up the process.  If you are skeptical about coming in, please stay home and come back in when you feel comfortable.

These are unprecedented times that no one around the world can really comprehend.  I could never have imagined having a 30-70% drop in business over the course of 1 week, but yet here we are struggling to figure out the next hour/day/week/month.  We don’t know what the future will hold for us, hopefully we are back and going full steam ahead in 4-6 weeks and we can pick up where we left off in January and February. I’m just going to sit back and be grateful for everything that I have in my life at this time: a loving wife, wild 19 month old son, supportive families, secretaries that encourage/help with the offices, minimal debt obligations, a reserve that hopefully will withstand this pandemic and most of all understanding/reasonable patients that have been nothing but supportive as well.  For all of these things, I’m so incredibly grateful.

Please keep up with Facebook for current statuses, we are currently planning on being open for the foreseeable future but that may change with state/federal mandates but ultimately we are day to day at this point and will keep Facebook current.

The current COVID-19 pandemic around the world is scary to both the Spracklin Family and Spracklin Chiropractic, but the thing that scares me the most is the unknown.  Fear will drive a person crazy, but I have started to wrap my mind around the possibility of potentially having to close the office down for a week or two.  This is probably the last thing that I want to do at this point, but it may come to that in terms of public safety.

The issue that arises in my mind is the fact that no one truly knows how long this will go or how it will ultimately end.  If the state or federal government stepped in and said, close down for 10 days and after that point you can open back up for business and it would be business as usual, I would do that in a heartbeat. But no one can tell us that for sure.

I expected patient visits to decline over the course of the next couple of weeks, which they were down slightly last week, but it was still a fine week.  I’m not scared that the doors will close forever or that financial ruin will come upon the Spracklin family, the thing that scares me the most is the unknown.  Will this pandemic go for weeks, months or God forbid even years?

I’ve started to run into the situation of what to exactly tell people or what to do going forward.  We are doing our absolute best to follow the CDC guidelines of not allowing multiple people in the office at any given time, screening people over the phone before they come in, disinfecting A LOT more often and washing hands until they are almost raw/sore.  I’m not sure what else we can tell people at this point.

In order to keep everyone as safe and sane as possible, if you are ill, don’t come in; if you have traveled recently, please don’t come in; fever, stay home; cough that can’t be controlled, don’t come in. In order to avoid numerous people in the waiting room, we are going to implement using your car as a waiting room, allowing us to control the amount of people in the buildings and allowing us to disinfect thoroughly between every patient.

The interesting thing about living in central Nebraska is that it can be kind of isolated from the rest of the world and if you had to pick somewhere to live in a situation like this, middle America is probably about as good of a place to be as any.  Population is sparse and spread out, and social contact can be avoided if need be.  We have wonderful healthcare facilities all around us that are preparing for the “surge” of patients that is expected (cross our fingers that everything can get under control).

I’m going to close by saying that we are literally taking this a day at a time.  We genuinely don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring at this point.  The offices are going to be open for normal business hours, we will be performing numerous DOT Physicals, chiropractic appointments and possibly even some acupuncture.  With all this being said, please be cognizant of the people around you, wash your hands and if this pandemic can teach us anything about society as a whole, please use some empathy and kindness in your days, it can go along way for people at this time.

As always, I truly do appreciate all of our patients during this difficult time, it has been a major stressor for me as I am very much a planner and routine based person.  The ups and downs of the past couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy, but we will all get through this, hopefully better than before.

Online reviews, whether you like them or not, are a major source of advertisement on the internet for small businesses.  One bad review can drive the business owner crazy but how much can you actually do about it?  I would like to think that my reviews on Facebook and Google are pretty good, but the two that drive me crazy are the 2 three star reviews from people that live in other parts of the country that I have never treated.

You want to know what to do in this situation, in my opinion, nothing.  You better hope that you can get more reviews that out-number those and average them out.  If you are good enough at what you do for a living and have a good enough rapport then you should have no trouble getting a boat load of five star reviews on any page that you operate.

The rule of thumb when it comes to working with the public, you cannot please everyone.  You will have bad days, people that come in and out of your office will have bad days.  Those days can reflect in one click of a mouse and can potentially affect your business but unfortunately that is the world that we live in.  I sometimes feel that by responding to negative reviews you are just baiting an argument and that is the last thing you are going to want on the internet is you looking petty trying to defend yourself and your business.

While I cannot control the reviews that get posted, I will tell you that none of them are from family members or friends that are looking to boost my online profile.  I have been known to snoop around on Facebook, when I start looking at reviews for other offices and you click on the links to see that the persons mom, dad, wife or chiropractic school classmates are leaving the majority of the reviews, it looks a little fishy to me.

Bad reviews are not always a terrible thing for you either, I have always been told that learning experiences are around every corner.  If everyone in your life just pats you on the back every day and told you how good of a job you do, while that may seem great on a daily basis, are you ever actually learning your flaws or trying to improve on things.  While no one like criticism, including myself, if you are going to own your own business and work with the public, thick skin should be developed in a hurry or your feelings are going to get hurt A LOT.

With all this being said, try to learn from your reviews and receiving genuine reviews are far superior than getting your mom and dad to leave you a five star review.  While your parents may love you, it looks funny when all of your reviews come from people with your last name.  The public is a weird dynamic to work with, you will not please everyone and patients will not be happy with you all the time, the only thing that you can do is show up every day and work to gain trust and respect.

In ending, if you have ever thought about leaving a review feel free, good or bad.  Small businesses rely on these reviews in order to boost our online presence and I would be grateful for the feedback that is left on my page.

P.S. I hope this request does not backfire on me spectacularly!!!