Frustration comes and goes in the life of a chiropractor/small business owner but this past week a few incidents struck a little different. I can almost guarantee that this story is fairly common within the healthcare field that the public does not hear much about but I’m going to tell it anyways just based on the pure scummy/frustrating nature of the story.

A little over a year ago a law firm reached out to me about taking on a patient that had been in an auto accident.  (I won’t name the law firm, but it is not local to me by any means) I took the case.  Being in the healthcare field, you understand that when you accept cases like this it may take years to get paid and a reduction in fees is normally going to take place. A couple of weeks later, the same law firm called about another person in a different case.  I took on that case as well.

Maybe I’m a sucker at this point, but I treated the patients and they were eventually released from care.  For every auto case there is normally a MedPay amount that auto insurance is required to cover, but as soon as lawyers get involved it can get messy in a hurry.  The cases normally have substantial amount due, because there are no upfront insurance write offs and the goal is to get the patient back to MMI (Maximum Medical Improvement) as soon as possible, so you treat aggressively from the start.

I felt that I took care of these patients very well.  They had been to physical therapy and received minimal benefit, so they wanted to try something else.  Great, send them our way and we will see what we can do. I think the treatment lasted for maybe 10 visits on the first patient and roughly 15 on the second, this is fairly lengthy for our office but they improved and in my professional opinion had reached MMI.

No additional treatment was going to be necessary on our end.  They avoided the medical system to keep them from having injections, surgeries, MRI, advanced imaging or any such things.  I honestly thought that I had done my job to the best of my ability.

This past week, we were trying to clean up some claims in the office and old auto cases always come up.  I periodically send out a few emails just to kind of check on the status of the claims, I understand that they may not be settled yet, but just from a curiosity perspective one want to know where they stand.

A couple days after I get a few emails back, the attorneys that had asked me to take the cases all of a sudden come in and indicate that they have “disengaged” from the case.  The frustration and “dumbfoundedness” hit me like a ton of bricks.  So a patient contacts a law firm, the law firm sets the patient up for additional care and then when it’s all said and done tell them that they will no longer represent the patient.  I’m assuming there was not enough money involved in the cases for the attorneys to profit, so they just drop the case, this is an assumption, but a good one.

All indications are that the lawyers have their butts covered and that I can send the bills to the patient.  I’m not exactly sure what I will do at this point because the patient did everything that they were supposed to do according to the attorney from the start and got left high and dry.

Morals and ethics are something I pride myself on but this situation just kind of struck me a little different. I’m not asking for a pity party but this just screams of a scummy lawyer with little to no ethics or morals.

I get these inquiries all the time when treating patients. While I don’t necessarily mind answering them, it does just seem to be a topic on conversation.  Just because you walk into the office and no one else is there does not mean that we are slow on that given day.  As with any other business, we go through ebbs and flows.  Spracklin Chiropractic has been around for going on 10 years to this point.  I used to ponder about how busy I am on a daily basis but at the end of the month and end of the year the numbers always seem to be just fine and most of the time grows slightly.

There is actually a thought process that you should cluster book patients on the schedule, there is a positive impact on when people come in and see other people in the office.  It gives the office credibility if there are other people seeking services from the office. I whole heartedly agree with this but when we allow for walk-ins in the offices, then there are going to be down times based on certain scheduling quirks that are planned for.

My wife and I are not paupers, of course you always want to see more patients and make a bigger impact in the communities I serve.  By making a bigger impact, normally money will follow.  Making a bigger impact does not necessarily mean taking advantage of people by making them come back for visits that are not necessary or by increasing your charges so that it makes up for the short fall on a given end.

The philosophy of the office is slow and steady, we have been growing consistently over the years but I always say that I’m able to sleep at night. There are days that we see more patients that we really want to in a given day and then the very next day we twiddle our thumbs waiting for the phone to ring…Welcome to Small Business Ownership.

I recently invested in decompression tables in the offices, I tell myself every time I purchase things in to the practice, I’m not doing this to add revenue to the office.  I think of specific patients when I buy things and purchase based on what value it can bring to the office.  A physical therapy office visit may cost you $150 just to walk in the door, if I can keep my costs at a reasonable level and provide the same basic services that other offices offer, but be able to charge $75 a visit, then it’s a win for myself, the office and the patient.

Caring about what your competition used to really work on me mentally but I’ve actually reached a point where working on my own practice and myself has become much more of a priority.  If by taking a day off bothers a few patients, I’m actually okay with that, because taking a day out of the office may actually benefit everyone involved in the practice.  Whether it be continuing education or rest and relaxation time, it will allow patients to benefit as I feel more refreshed or bringing new knowledge to the practice that could potentially benefit more people.

I like to have open conversations in the office, whether it be about the condition that is presented for the office, my life, your life or anything in between.  Don’t get me wrong, I will continue to answer the question about how busy the office is, but just know that you may come in one day and we usher you straight back and then you could return later that week or sometime later and you may wait for 10 minutes because we may be inundated on a given day.  We take the good with the bad but just know that we are happy with the pace of the office but will always strive to be busier.

I get comments from time to time saying that I don’t need to worry about money: “You see plenty of people, you must have a fancy car, mini mansion and take nice vacations a couple times a year.”

I want to kind of get back to the roots of this blog and talk to a younger demographic for a second about the finances that go into becoming a chiropractor, the numbers that come along with running a practice and how young chiropractors make a living.

I’ve said this before and I will continue to preach it, if you think you are going to become a chiropractor to become rich, I have some news for you.  The average American chiropractor makes between $70,000-90,000 a year.  Most have to take out student loans in order to finish the degree.  I graduated almost 10 years ago now and my loans were close to $180,000.  There are stories out there with people in the 250-300K range.  There are ways around making very minimal payments but the interest continues to accumulate and if you are looking for income based repayment, I hope you have done your research on the tax implications if you just make minimum payments for the next 20 years.

I’m a huge advocate for being as aggressive as you can, getting the loans paid off as fast as possible and from a bare minimum, you at least own your brain. Kristina and I made some very strategic moves in order to get the loans paid down, waited to start a family, worked relentlessly/obsessively to make extra payments and lived fairly minimal for the first couple years out of school to get them paid off.

Most chiropractors coming out of school end up working for someone for at least a little bit of time, while this is not the rule, some people do start practices right out of school.  Associate positions normally pay minimally and normally pad the pockets of the practice owner.  Starting a practice is expensive, more loans are probably necessary and the building period to making a profit can take a little while, if at all.  If you can keep your overhead to less than 50% you are doing well, but I caution when the bills start rolling in, your bank account never seems to get ahead.

If you think that you will make six figures, drive a luxury car and take a couple of weeks off a year your first couple years out of school, I want to know what you are smoking or what you are doing because I want what you got.

I’m going to preface this with, Nebraska, where I practice has a pretty good situation to practice in. The state association is very well organized and insurance reimbursements are reasonable for the area.  Chiropractic schools seem to be putting out more and more chiropractors with no sense of running a business, so unless you know the insurance game and have a little bit of business sense, it can be a rough go starting out.

Just some very simple numbers on a monthly basis: Rent ($1500), Utilities ($200), Software($200), Minimal Salary ($2000), Student Loans ($1000), Bank Loan for Practice ($1500), Advertising ($100), plus you will have random stuff that comes up.  Let’s say that you can keep your practice overhead to around $6000-7000 a month which includes paying yourself, at an average visit of $55 a visit, you will need to see roughly 35-50 patients per week to make a bare minimal lifestyle. These numbers will fluctuate greatly, you may hire help, you will pay payroll taxes and other practice related expenses are not included but you get the picture.  This doesn’t include saving for retirement, a building, a home or a car.

When someone says you must be rolling in cash because the practice is always busy, the thing that people don’t normally take into consideration ,is the pure cost of running an office, paying people and still having enough meat on the bone so that your own family can survive.

I’m not writing this for a sympathy vote, my wife and I live a fairly comfortable life with two young boys.  She works and probably always will, she worked hard for her degree as well and we feel that she should use it. The way the business is structured will actually benefit myself and Kristina in the years to come but it can get tight at times because the ebb and flow of patient visits on a given week or month.  We are ten years into practice so the ups and downs are expected but it does make you think a little bit when patients think that you are getting rich off of them.

I chose the chiropractic profession because I knew that I would be able to help people and I could ultimately be my own boss.  The sky is the limit, but right now I’m comfortable driving an eleven year old car that is paid off while trying to get ahead in life.  Like I said, this is not a sympathy blog but more of a put the numbers into perspective so people can wrap their minds around them.

If you are a young chiropractor with the world at your finger tips, there are a lot of different ways to make the numbers work and I have some good ideas that I keep to myself unless asked about but just know that knowing your numbers is a must, it will be a grind and that if you keep all this in mind, odds are you will be okay in life, not poor, not rich but okay.  People will always have more that you, so be comfortable with who you are and own it.

Questions are welcome and we will see everyone in the weeks to come.

Health insurance in general can be fairly tricky to navigate.  This is not a new phenomenon in chiropractic office either.  We have numerous people that come into the office indicating that their previous doctor no long accepts a particular form of insurance.  While I don’t necessarily fault the doctor for not taking certain insurance, I understand that this can be super frustrating from the patient perspective.

That’s why at Spracklin Chiropractic we essentially take every different health insurance, you name it, I can almost guarantee that we are in network or at least work with them. At the end of the day, the offices are a business and needs to generate some form of revenue, but and there is a big but in this statement, people need help at inopportune times in their lives.

A new patient will come in the door and we have a short conversation as to what are the expectations on both parties.  I indicate that I am here to help and meet them for their needs; we will not do more than we need be.  Most of the time, I like to start treatment very simply and build care from that point.  If I throw every therapy I have at you and you get better or worse, how are we supposed to know what exactly helped or hurt you?

We have numerous forms of therapy that we have in the office.  Not everyone will get the same therapy or treatment every single visit.  I have numerous families come in and ask why a certain person got treated differently than the other, well, they needed different things.

If you call our office and ask for our prices, we are upfront on the cost.  Are we cheap, NO: are we expensive, NO.  I would say that our office provides value to the patient.  Our fees are just like everyone else and we charge for what we do in the office but we are fair.  We try to maximize insurance coverage in order to get the desired results that the patient is looking for.

Some people will see a benefit within one treatment, some it may take several.  If you think your treatment plan is going to cost thousands of dollars and months of your life, you will not find that here.

DOT physicals are the same way in our office, are we cheap, I don’t think we are but compared to other offices, I’m sure you could make that argument.  We provide a value for a service that is necessary for a certain subset of the population.  We are convenient to get into and reasonably priced for all of our services. We play within the guidelines, whether it’s with the Federal Motor Carriers for DOT’s or with insurance companies for chiropractic care.

Meeting people where they are in their lives and giving them what they want in order to get the relief that they are seeking is kind of the motto of the office.  We feel that we provided numerous services that people can benefit from on a regular basis and we provide those services at a value that doesn’t take advantage of the patient. We are not necessarily that unique of an office but we do find that being truthful with patients, providing a value with care, allowing people to direct care (to a certain degree) and the general laid back feel of the office sets us apart from the other guy.

Let us know if we can be of any assistance in any of the services that we provide and would like to experience the office for yourself.

Another year down and what a year it was.  Every year I like to sit down and write and reflect on the previous 12 months in the offices.

Knock on wood, we did not have to close down this year due to COVID.  We have tried to do just about everything possible to keep Marty, Carol and myself safe during the year.  Sure we had random allergies and colds but as far as we know COVID never crept into the office on a personal level.

Laser therapy and most recently decompression tables were added to the offices this past year. We feel that this will add a dimension to the office, patients that are looking at potential surgery for back and neck pain along with chronic pain patients that have tried just about everything.  We have gotten to a point where both offices have the exact same equipment that I like and prefer in order to achieve the results I would like to see coming out of the offices.

DOT physicals, we do plenty and don’t really want to do them all day but always room for more growth.  We are changing the payment structure of these, as we have been getting eaten alive with credit card fees. Cash, check & fleet accounts won’t be affected but people paying with credit cards for this service will see a slight increase in price.

We changed our hours in the spring and have no intention of changing them back at this time. I initially called the change the “summer of sanity” and it really did turn into that.  I truly enjoy having my Friday afternoons off, most of the time I’m able to catch up with paperwork or just enjoy some down time.  But the greatest thing about it is the fact that we are able to get out of town a couple hours earlier if need be to get back to see family when necessary.

The past couple of years have been kind of interesting in regards to growth, sure we have been growing and seeing more patients in 2021 than we did in 2020 & 2019 this has been while shaping the business how I would like to see in the future while continuing to practice like I have been.  When you purchase a practice, I’m a firm believer that you need to know what you are buying in the first place and don’t change everything on the first day.

The most frustrating aspect of the office is probably dealing with the ever changing aspects that insurance brings to the office. We are in-network with just about every insurance company that is offered in the state of Nebraska.  The marketplace this year is coming out with a couple of new products, as far as I know we are in-network with all of them.  The first couple of months of every year is trying to figure out what each insurance company wants and we spend a lot of time in January through March figuring this out, it’s not new but frustrating.

In summary, the year ended up being a pretty good year with no major hiccups or complaints. As we trek through the years, we are constantly evolving our “why.” This is a little bit of a thoughtful process as I’ve become big into, I know what I do and I know how I do it but figuring out why I show up to work every day is a constant ebb and flow.

I know that I am a chiropractor and I know that I like to help people rid themselves of pain but as the years go my “why” is turning into: providing patients an alternative to the traditional healthcare system by enhancing options that keep people comfortable and moving throughout the stages of the individual life.  It can be all encompassing but I feel that being thought provoking can be a wonderful process for most businesses.

We look forward to seeing everyone in the new year and can’t wait for what lies ahead both personally and professionally.

The end of the summer this year, I was starting to notice patients that were coming in and presenting after going to physical therapy.  They would indicate that they had spinal decompression at physical therapy; then I had a patient I had to actively seek where to find a decompression table as she would be the perfect candidate.  This is where the conversation began.

Kristina and I started to converse about purchasing a decompression table.  The problem for our office is that I like to have mirror images of each other, what I have in Minden, I have in Kearney.  Patients receive the exact same care no matter what office they present too. So buying just one was not really a question, but the hang up was, if we were going to move forward with this, I would need multiple. As the post suggests, we bought two and are moving full steam ahead.

I wanted to kind of jot down some general ideas as to what decompression does and who are the candidates for this type of treatment:

The general idea/theory behind decompression therapy is that by creating a pull/traction in the spine you create a negative pressure within the spinal canal while allowing fluid and movement into the canal and facet joints themselves.  While this is a fairly simplistic explanation of the therapy, it covers the basis for the vast majority of the public.

While laying on the table itself, you lay on your back, for low back patients there are a couple of straps that are applied and just lay there and let the table do the work.  For neck pain patients, you lay on your back and are gently pulled upwards while strapped into a neck pull.  The table and traction itself are very comfortable, most patients don’t notice how much of a pull there actually is until the traction actually starts to let up.  Most treatments are between 12-15 minutes per patients. (Just a heads up…insurance may or may not cover this, so ask the front desk before committing initially)

The best way to think about the use of the table generally starts: do you have peripheral or neuropathic pain indicating a nerve impingement.  This may be great therapy for you.  Do you find that you don’t like to be manually adjusted, this may be for you, on the road to surgery for a disc herniation or disc bulge, this may be for you.  Are you a chronic pain patient that seems to have run out of options, give this a try.

This is not a therapy that will be attempted on everyone, specific criteria will need to be met.  While it is not a miracle cure, it may benefit many of the people that try it, but with that being said, you will have to try this normally around 6 times in order to see positive results.  If you think that you are only going to be able to try it a time or two, I won’t waste your time or money as you may not see the results you are seeking.

The ultimate decision was made to purchase this equipment because we feel that this may help us over the threshold to help those that seem to have hit a brick wall.  Not necessarily a last resort but for some people that have tried numerous things and may be grasping for options or for those that are seeking a treatment for a specific spinal condition that is laid out above.

While I do not anticipate that the practice will evolve so much that everyone uses this table, I do think it may bring in a different demographic to the practice and I’m excited to see if this comes to fruition. Minden and Kearney offices will have the therapy and we look forward to the opportunity to serve.

I was cruising through Twitter a couple of days ago and found a thread of orthopedic surgeon trashing the chiropractic profession.  The purpose of the thread was to essentially persuade all patients to avoid chiropractors because they are dangerous and can hurt you.

Being a chiropractor, this may surprise you, but this thought process is completely crazy. I send people to other doctors and orthopedists all the time, sure sometimes they come back and recommend that I don’t adjust certain parts.  While this is taken to heart, the whole treatment is based on what the person needs.  In our office, we will not risk any unnecessary problems in order to fix the bigger problem.

Example, I have a hard rule in the office, I don’t adjust pregnant women in the first trimester.  Is there any evidence to show that I shouldn’t do this, NO. But I don’t feel that comfortable doing it and I want to make sure that that the pregnancy is far enough along that I cannot possibly be the reason if the pregnancy is lost. First rule of medicine: Do No Harm.

Does it bother me and make me think when I read things that are detrimental to the profession and ultimately my business, sure it does but I know that every day I show up to the offices and do the best I can.  Telling the truth, treating people with respect and having a little fun with people are wonderful things. I’m comfortable, I have friends and family in the medical profession, some are patients, some look at me like I’m a quack.  At the end of the day, I’m comfortable with what I do and love what I do.

I’d be naïve to tell you that dissecting aneurisms don’t exist, that abdominal aneurisms don’t cause lower back pain, headaches can have a deeper meaning than a cervicogenic origin or that kidney’s can’t cause middle back pain.  All of these things are true and definitely need a higher level of care than a chiropractor.  There is a certain subset of patients that have never been to a medical doctor and would put their life in the hands of a chiropractor.  On a micro level, I can understand the line of thinking but on a macro level, this is nuts.

I have to think to myself sometimes when these patients come in, have they been conned by a chiropractor out to make a buck and what underlying health conditions are lingering that could have been addressed sooner. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing that I’m a huge advocate for, but my purpose is to be a little piece of the puzzle.  If I can help take the pain away for those with back or neck pain or simple musculoskeletal complaints, then I hope I can be the best at doing just that.

The profession is known for taking the crazy position or going against the grain when it comes to care of the body as a whole.  I’m not anti supplements, I just don’t sell them. I’m not anti stem cell injection, I just don’t do them. I don’t know much about deionizing foot bath, hell I’m terrible at treatment plans but I feel like my patients are comfortable in the office, as they get the truth and most of them get better.

Moral of this story: The vast majority of the medical community will think you are a little crazy, but at the end of the day you need to take pride in your work and get people well.  I know wealthy crooked chiropractors and crazy smart, poor chiropractors.  The profession runs the gambit.  I sleep well at night (at least when my little boys do) and I’m very comfortable in my skin within the profession.

I was recently having a conversation about the profession and what benefit chiropractors bring to the entire healthcare community.  While the scope of practice for chiropractors in Nebraska is wide open, I’m practice fairly narrowly in the sense that I treat back pain, headaches and other spinal/musculoskeletal conditions.  I do not venture into internal disorders, supplements, long treatment plans or try to pretend to read x-rays/MRI’s as a radiologist.

The conversation that I was having was all over the place, but the general consensus that I was trying to get across to the person is that most people are going to eventually get better, treatment or no treatment, my biggest obstacle is time.  I’m trying to beat time for the most part.  But the idea that most of the time when a patient presents to a clinic, you tell a nurse the problem, the doctor may come in and talk for a few seconds and you will be on your way.

Now this is a fairly large generalization, but there is some truth to it.  The premise is that if a patient feels that they are being heard and if they are “touched”, whether that be palpation from a physical exam or from the adjustment itself, there is something therapeutic about the entire process.

A patient in pain will eventually improve but doing the bare minimum in regards to listening and touching the patient will speed up that process immensely.  While I’m not aware of any research out there to prove that physical touch with no therapy speeds up healing, it would not surprise anyone in the profession.

While I have nothing but the utmost respect for other healthcare providers, the one aspect of chiropractic that is unique to the profession is that we physically touch people. Just palpating the neck or lower back seems to be beneficial because the patient feels that they are being heard. Striving for the patient to feel like their concerns are being met with an empathetic ear and touching the painful area can go a long way for chiropractors.

I don’t ever want to get to a point where the ability to talk to the patient and find out the current issue is too much of a burden.  I’ve actually had to slow my thought process down recently, to concentrate on the patient in the current room. I’m trying to take the day one patient at a time and meet the needs of the individual patient.

While this post may seem redundant, it is a reminder to myself and others in the profession to listen with a purpose, have empathy for everyone that comes into the office and touch the painful area while helping the patient through their problem. So, next time you come into my office or any other office, make sure that your concerns are being heard and your needs are being met both verbally and physically.

New toys, new equipment and new technology are always evolving in most professions and chiropractic companies are no different.  There is always a push or pull in order for you to practice a certain way or to sign up for management companies that promise you the world.  The evolving model right now within the profession is a multidisciplinary practice that brings numerous professions under one roof.  While I’m not against the model and I think that it provides a unique opportunity for patients, it will most likely never be the way Spracklin Chiropractic operates.

I’ve considered giving into the management model and give up some autonomy in regards to running a practice but I have enough rationale people in my life that bring me back down to earth.  I have and always will practice with the mantra that if you give people what they want and what they are expecting, your practice will grow and thrive.  It may not be exponential growth that management companies promise but it will be consistent.

Patients for the most part don’t want long term treatment plans that cost thousands of dollars over the course of six months. Most persons that present in the office, have a complaint, normally pain and want to get rid of the pain in as few visits as possible.  Is there a time and a place for lifestyle coaching and pain prevention, for sure.  But what I’m saying is that 90% of the patients that come into the office what to rid themselves of pain and move on with life and come back when some pain or ailment returns.

I have random ideas every once in a while to bring new treatment options or other people into the office, but the thought process comes down to….am I bringing in new things to generate more money or am I doing it to benefit the patient.  I feel that if a therapy can benefit enough patients without bringing a significant cost burden to the patient then it should be considered, but if I’m bringing things in and end up having to push it on patients in order to pay for it; that is self defeating.

I’m in the minority in the profession.  I tend to side towards evidence based practice and despise treatment plans.  I can be fairly vocal about this at time but will never throw a fellow chiropractor under the bus.  My circle of people in my life can be fairly small at times, socially and professionally.  I’m okay with that because I feel comfortable with what I’m doing and don’t feel that people resent the office when they leave.  They may not leave pain-free but I’m aim that everyone at least have a positive experience and doesn’t feel like they are being taken advantage of.

Integrity can go a long way in my opinion.  I feel comfortable with how I practice, it may not be fancy or elaborate but the office is effective.  A quality adjustment, simple stretches, a short little massage or roller table can do the body and symptoms well.  You will not see me out there advertising a discount to get more people in the office in a given week and you will not see me pushing a plan for my existing patients to return for the next 2-3 months.

Boredom hits sometimes around the office but I have been in business for nearly 10 years now and this philosophy has not failed me yet.  The office grows via word of mouth referrals, a little bit of Google Adwords and having existing patients from years ago keep coming back in when they need anything. Gimmicks and other tactics are not used and we plan on keeping it that way.  The old saying that: it takes years to build a reputation and a second to ruin it.  We plan on continuing to practice with integrity, build a quality reputation and giving our patients what they need and want, no more, no less.

The headline of this is kind of a rhetorical statement but the further I go into practice and the more people that approach you, the crazier I think I get.

Would you ever consider bringing on an associate?

I’m never going to say never on bringing on an associate, the issue with bringing someone else on to work, is that everything from practice style to values need to align fairly close.  I’m busy alone by myself and I enjoy my patient base.  I feel that when someone schedules in the office, they know exactly what they are going to get.  It’s on me and my practice style to get them better.  For most people it works wonderful and we get good results, some people not so much.  I have come to understand that I can and will not please everyone, but that’s on me and me alone.  If word vomit comes out of my mouth and I offend someone, that reflects bad on the my practice and livelihood, but its mine.  An associate can reflect bad on the office and I can’t control that as easily as I can control myself.

Would you ever consider sharing space with other professionals?

Not at this time.  Sure I allow a massage therapist to use an extra room in the Minden office but there is a general understanding that she can be there when I’m not there.  I don’t normally play well with others in a professional sense.  I like things to flow a certain way in the office and if that gets interrupted, that’s okay but I don’t really want that to happen all of the time.  I have too much equity and equipment for things that I like to do to be moving things around on a daily basis to accommodate someone else.  I’m getting set in my ways and the extra money that it could potentially bring in is just not worth it to my sanity.

Why are you so passionate about student loan debt and personal finance?

Chiropractic schools essentially don’t really teach anything in regards to debt and money management.  I’m not saying that I’m an expert in these fields at all but I do enjoy the discussions that come about with personal finance.  The most freeing thing that I have ever done in my life was when Kristina and I paid off nearly $180K in student loan debt, basically for a piece of paper.  I at least own my mind and brain at this point.  Aggressive debt payoff is not for everyone but I think more young, aspiring chiropractors should at least consider and think about it for a little bit of time fairly regularly.  If you are waiting for a government program to get rid of your student loans, this may backfire, but I won’t hold my breath.

What kind of car do you drive?

I drive a Honda Civic that I bought when I was a student in Chicago.  Cars are utilitarian to me.  It gets great gas mileage and I haven’t had a car payment on it in probably 7 years. Hell it got sideswiped while parked on the street in Minden.  Guess what, I care but not really because it came down to a little dent and a scratch on the driver’s side, if I drove a brand new vehicle I would have freaked out.  Vehicles just don’t mean that much to me.

What school did you go to and why?

National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, IL.  I wanted an evidence based school in an environment that I would enjoy living in for roughly 4 years.  Patients ask me all the time, did you ever fear for your safety living around Chicago.  Absolutely not, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, I was between the ages of 21-25 years old and loved every minute.  I met some people that I stay in contact with to this day and would tell anyone interested in Chiropractic school to look at National.  It’s a fairly small school and hardly anyone in Nebraska goes there but I would not change that experience for the world.

Can I shadow you in the office?

I’m starting to get this more often.  I don’t normally like people following me around for the day, as I honestly don’t know my schedule from a day to day basis.  Patients come and go throughout the day and when it gets busy, I don’t really like to slow down and ask people permission to have a student step in.  With that being said, I am more than willing to answer questions and give advice.  Being a source of knowledge is more a key for my more than being around the office in a working setting.

These are just a few of the things/questions I deal with on a daily/weekly basis.  Sure, I have my quirks and there are some people out there that think I’m nuts/crazy but at this point we have a fairly good track record for being an office that people get well and feel comfortable in. I’m an open book with an opinion if you ask.  If you plan on starting an uncomfortable conversation, I will more than likely just walk out of the room because if you trap me, you may not like my opinion.  With all that being said, we are going to continue being an office that people can come to for musculoskeletal complaints and DOT physicals, keeping things simple and getting people better.  Crazy, I’m not sure about that but normal with some quirks, sure, I can go with that.

See everyone in the weeks to come.